Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. I was also alarmed to learn from the Garda Inspectorate report that even though a code of ethics was signposted in the Garda Síochána Act 2005, it is still not in place ten years later. I am sure the Minister will agree that report was a damning indictment of the repeated failure of the management of An Garda Síochána to implement recommendations from, not just Garda Inspectorate reports, but also a range of other inquiries, reviews and investigations over recent years. We are repeatedly told that they accept the recommendations in these reports but the recommendations are not being implemented. It was a damning indictment of the failure of the management of An Garda Síochána to act.

The report was superb. I am also conscious that the Garda Inspectorate published a report on penalty points. In recent days, it has been brought to my attention that a considerable number of members of An Garda Síochána are still avoiding penalty points by utilising what is called a statutory exemption for emergency vehicles. The Minister and I, along with all citizens, would agree this should apply for a garda driving a Garda vehicle or their own vehicle while pursuing somebody engaged in the act of criminality. We can accept there are circumstances when gardaí have to use either his or her own vehicle or more likely a Garda vehicle. My understanding is that on none of the occasions when these members of An Garda Síochána had points terminated under statutory exemption for emergency vehicles measure did they prove they were using the vehicle in question for that reason. They are beating the rap unlike every other citizen.

It was brought to my attention that a senior member of An Garda Síochána has repeatedly had penalty points terminated, even including in the middle of this year, 2015. I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. This senior member of An Garda Síochána claimed he was driving the vehicle under the statutory exemption for emergency vehicles. He is a repeat offender, who, as far as I can see, has never had penalty points allocated.

Here we are at the end of 2015 and the Minister has stood up in this Chamber and given us assurances that the recommendations of the Garda Inspectorate, the Comptroller and Auditor General and others would be implemented by An Garda Síochána. On the basis of the information I have just given, will the Minister undertake an immediate review of all terminations of penalty points that are categorised a statutory exemption for emergency vehicles to ensure that they were genuinely using the vehicle to prevent a crime with paperwork to back it up?

I also ask the Minister to implement the recommendations that came through the Garda professional standards unit. There were two key recommendations. One was an evader unit to be set up to track the PULSE system to look at people who had points repeatedly terminated, be they members of An Garda Síochána or other citizens. The second was to have the statutory exemption issue dealt with. That is just one example and I could give the Minister many others where we have been assured that change is on the way and that recommendations will be implemented.

Let us consider the three-year investigation of crime work, a milestone examination by the Garda Inspectorate. How many of those recommendations have been implemented? The Garda Inspectorate report, Changing Policing in Ireland, made 12 key recommendations, only two of which have been implemented. Unfortunately, there has been a refusal by management of An Garda Síochána to implement recommendations for change by the Garda Inspectorate and others.

Here is my problem with all this. With the guidance of her officials, the Minister has decided to disempower the new policing authority from being as independent as it could be. I will give some examples. The Commissioner and deputy commissioner will be appointed and removed by Government. The Commissioner is accountable to Government. It has been stated that the Commissioner will remain accountable to Government on matters of national security but I say respectfully that is not accurate. The original provision on accountability is not altered. The Commissioner will remain accountable to the Minister for the performance of the Commissioner's functions and those of the Garda Síochána. This concerns all aspects of policing and not just national security.

Policing plans, strategies and priorities must be confirmed by Government. Security priorities will be set by Government. The budget is determined by Government. The Minister can demand any documents of An Garda Síochána. The Minister can issue written directives to An Garda Síochána and to the authority. CCTV schemes must be approved by the Minister. Ministerial consent is required for GSOC to investigate the Commissioner. The Minister decides the number of senior rank positions. The Minister gives consent on the number of civilian staff, the appointment of members to the audit committee and the appointment of the CEO of the authority. The Minister decides what constitutes State security. Government consent is required for the Garda to work with a police service in another state.

The Minister authorises delegation of the Commissioner's functions to the deputy commissioner. The Minister can appoint someone to inquire into any aspect of policing and statistical information on crime compiled by An Garda Síochána is to go the Minister and not to the authority. I could go on.

Last week’s Garda Inspectorate report was a devastating report in terms of its implications for the role of the Houses of the Oireachtas to oversee An Garda Síochána. That is the reason we need a truly independent policing authority with the teeth to ensure that An Garda Síochána management oversees the change that is required. Frankly, the Government has failed again and again. I genuinely am shocked to learn that we do not have a cast iron penalty points system in spite of reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Garda Inspectorate, the PAC and everything we said about the penalty points system. We do not have a penalty points system that ensures whether one is a member of An Garda Síochána or a citizen that if one has been speeding there are only two grounds on which one would have the points terminated, namely, if one was bringing a family member to hospital in an emergency, with the necessary paperwork from the hospital to prove that was the case, and that members of An Garda Síochána would have to prove by means of a report on the PULSE system that they were in pursuit of criminals or suspected criminals in a vehicle. One would not just have the speeding charge waived. Garda management is failing to ensure the change that is required is being delivered even on that issue. That is why we need a genuinely independent policing authority with teeth and the ability to hold Garda management to account.

The men and women of An Garda Síochána who are trying to do their job are being failed even more than any of us in these Houses. They are without leadership and the clear direction they require. At times they have issued penalty points only to see them terminated by a senior colleague for some derisory reason. That is why I am so disappointed with what we have seen in terms of the dilution of the authority. We have a conservative Department of Justice and Equality that has interpreted the Constitution in a conservative way to say that the Constitution which rightly gives authority to the Executive to protect the security of the State must be extended and interpreted to include all policing matter. The Garda Síochána, the police of this State, oversee security and policing. Because of that unique situation the Department has interpreted the Constitution to give the Cabinet the power to continue to control policing to an extent that is not necessary.

Given the information I and other Opposition colleagues have given the Minister and last week’s damning Garda Inspectorate report that repeatedly refers to the failure of Garda management to implement recommendations for change, will the Minister please reconsider her response to Opposition amendments? Will she please give the policing authority the independence it needs to hold An Garda Síochána to account, to make sure that we have genuinely learnt the lessons of all the scandals of recent years and that there is a new beginning to policing and that we have a police service that the men and women of An Garda Síochána can be proud of and want to serve every day, and in which we the people across the State can have true faith? I am shocked to learn what I did about penalty points. I have seen written evidence that some members of An Garda Síochána can still get off with speeding. In one case a senior member of An Garda Síochána who has repeatedly come into the system, in the middle of this year beat the rap due to the loophole that exists. The Minister must put a stop to that. I know she wants to, but she must now show authority and deal with the issue and call an immediate review of the statutory exemption for emergency vehicles. The Minister must ensure that every case that is registered on the system is examined to see whether there is paperwork to prove the vehicle was genuinely used to protect the public or if the driver was abusing the penalty points system, which I believe happens. Some gardaí believe they are higher, more powerful and more entitled than other citizens. After everything we have been through, that is a scandal and the Minister must put a stop to it in the absence of an independent policing authority. Next year I want an independent policing authority to do that but in the absence of such an authority being in place the Minister still has the power and she must call in the Garda Commissioner tomorrow and ask why she has not implemented the recommendations of all the Garda Inspectorate reports and why after everything we have been through with penalty points some gardaí still believe they are above the law.

That is the challenge I set down for the Minister. I believe the Minister is genuine about her office. She must now take the opportunity to deal with this issue once and for all and send the message out to the brave whistleblowers who have taken a stand on this issue and to the Garda Inspectorate, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the members of the PAC and the likes of Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly and others who have championed the cause and exposed this issue that it will be dealt with once and for all.

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