Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is opportune that we are discussing crime, law and order and justice because we have not had an opportunity to do so for some time. Everybody in the House has been provided with the most recent crime statistics from the CSO. Many of the headings make for very stark reading.

When we debate and discuss these issues, it is valuable to receive, on a timely basis from the CSO, independently verified crime statistics. For too long we received information in a delayed manner and there was also a question mark over the veracity of the statistics we received. I have had many private communications with members of An Garda Síochána who questioned the veracity of the official figures which were published. In any event, the stand-off between the CSO and An Garda Síochána now seems, at long last, to have been ironed out and we are in possession of accurate data, which is good and helpful.

I wish to put some of the figures on the record of the House. Figures referring to the end of quarter four of 2015, comparing 2015 to 2014, show the following: homicide offences decreased by 28%; sexual offences increased by 15%; attempts or threats to murder, including assaults, harassments and related offences, increased by 11.8%; dangerous or negligent acts decreased by 1.4%; kidnapping and related offences increased by 25%; robbery, extortion and hijacking offences decreased by 2.4%; burglary and related offences decreased by 5%; theft and related offences decreased by 2.2%; fraud, deception and related offences increased by 8.1%; controlled drug offences decreased by 4.9%; weapons and explosive offences decreased by 4.6%; damage to property and the environment decreased by 4.8%; public order offences and social code offences increased by 1.9%; and offences against Government, justice procedures and organised crime, which, of course, triggered this debate, increased by 13.4%. It is a very mixed bag, but it is fair to say that the trend in some of the major headline crime categories is, unfortunately, upwards.

That is something we must take very seriously.

Much mention has been made of gangland activity. We must collectively send out a message of solidarity from this House to the communities of north inner city Dublin in particular, arising from the instances and events in recent days and weeks in terms of gangland activity. Those communities need to hear a message of solidarity from us again. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, I have met with representatives of those communities and I have visited those areas but we need, collectively, to stand in solidarity with them. I agree with the comments made by the Minister on the previous Administrations who introduced robust amendments and changes to the criminal justice legislation to deal with gangland activity. My local city of Limerick was ravaged by gangland criminality, as has been well documented, and much of the legislation that was introduced at that time was to deal with that fact. The legislation has been on the Statute Book since then and has proven to be a success.

It is ironic that the Labour Party benches are empty during this debate on gangland crime. During the week some speakers from the Labour Party were quick to point out empty benches of other political parties when we were discussing other issues. It is important to put on record again that in 2009, when the then Minister, Dermot Ahern, was steering through legislation to significantly strengthen criminal justice legislation to target gangland activity, the Labour Party voted against it. That must be said and people need to be reminded of it.

A message of support must be sent to An Garda Síochána. The Garda has a very tough job to do in dealing with gangland crime because it is now multifaceted. We know from intelligence, reporting and briefings that the people and gangs involved in gangland activity are involved not just in drugs, but in people trafficking, high-value theft, racketeering and extortion. They are involved in anything where money can be made. Gangland activity reaches into every community and sector. The Minister is aware that prior to the general election we discussed the establishment of a serious and organised crime unit within An Garda Síochána. It was a central part of my party’s general election manifesto. It was proposed to amalgamate the Garda national drugs unit and the Garda’s serious crime unit to provide an extra dimension, capability and resource to deal with the current multifaceted gangland landscape given that those people are involved in so many areas in addition to drugs. That is of major concern to us. That is something the new, incoming Government must take on board.

I echo the comments made complimenting the members of the Garda Síochána on their dedication and the work they do. There must be a serious ramping up in recruitment. We discussed the matter many times in the House. The need for more men and women to be recruited into An Garda Síochána has been a central plank of my party’s policy. Fine Gael has agreed with my party’s position that the Garda force must increase to approximately 15,000. It is ironic that prior to the general election the Minister said it could not be done. Anyway, it can be done now and it should be done as soon as possible. There is a significant challenge to An Garda Síochána as an organisation to build capacity in a short period because approximately 1,500 members are eligible to retire today. They will not all retire on the one day and they might not all retire within the one year but the new Minister, whoever that will be, must examine the retirement age of An Garda Síochána because many serving gardaí have said to me that they feel the retirement age should be increased. It is debatable whether the current level of recruitment will reach the target figure of 15,000. That will take a long time unless recruitment is considerably intensified, which must be done given that so many members of the Garda force are now eligible to retire. We must be aware of the immense brain drain, ability drain and intelligence drain from the organisation and we must examine it.

The Garda Reserve is an issue I have raised on a number of occasions. Capacity in that regard is under-utilised and under-realised and there is considerable potential. There are approximately 1,000 Garda reserves. There were 1,100 but many have dropped out because they are very demoralised. They felt there was no proper career progression and that they were not being assimilated and acknowledged by the State and by the leadership of An Garda Síochána. I am still getting that message and I have had a number of communications on the matter in recent days. When the Minister engaged in the recent round of recruitment, she specified in the criteria that there would be a channel for a certain amount of members of the Garda Reserve. We must examine the model in other countries whereby the primary avenue of progression into the main force is through the reserve force.

I wish to refer briefly to an e-mail concerning the Garda Reserve without giving the person’s identity. He said:

I am emailing you because I read the Kildare street forum of you questioning the minister of justice about the Garda reserve recently and in the past. I had my interview back in 2013 and passed to the following stages. I didn’t get a medical till May 2015. I was then offered training in September 2015 which was cancelled and I was told November 2015 this was also cancelled. I have emailed Garda HQ and have been told that there is no plan set out for training for Garda Reserves for 2016.

The e-mail continues, but that is a flavour of some of the communication we receive on Garda reserves. We must examine the matter again.

I agree with the Minister’s comments on the Special Criminal Court. My party’s position of being supportive of the Special Criminal Court is well known and a second special criminal court needs to be established in order to deal with the backlog of cases.

Fianna Fáil introduced the Assaults on Emergency Workers Bill 2012 during the previous Dáil. The Bill was accepted by the Government but parked on Second Stage. I hope that during the next term, when the Dáil reform committee reports to us and we have a reformed Dáil and Oireachtas, that we will see progression of Bills that have a lot of merit in the public interest. The Minister will be aware of the report at the weekend concerning a number of assaults carried out on members of the Limerick fire service when they attended a call-out to Garryowen, which is part of Limerick city. I personally know some of the staff of the fire service who were attacked. As an Oireachtas and society we must deal with the issue. The approach some people in some communities are taking towards assaulting emergency front-line workers is too casual. I refer to nurses, doctors, gardaí, fire service staff or emergency and medical technicians. Those people are on the front line protecting communities and people’s lives and property and they find themselves coming under assault. Frustration is building and there is a negative downside to the situation. That is most worrying for communities apart from affecting morale and output. We previously introduced legislation to deal with the issue and create a red-line category of offence in that regard and it is something we must revisit in the not-too-distant future.

The Minister mentioned she had received up to 55 applications for the serious organised crime-type unit to which I referred. That is good to hear.

However, I cannot go through this debate without mentioning the issue of morale within An Garda Síochána. In the recent round of conferences held by bodies such as the Garda Representative Association, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and so on, the issue of starter pay for members of An Garda Síochána arose. It is absolutely shocking to think that a member of An Garda Síochána who has gone through the application process, recruitment, training, passing out and then starting in a station could give it up to take a job in Tesco. Unfortunately, a two-tier salary system exists within teaching, nursing and the Garda, to mention the headline sectors. This issue must be sorted out as soon as possible because we cannot have a scenario whereby, as was reported in the newspapers yesterday, in the course of the careers of two teachers within a staff room, one will earn €200,000 more than the other. This scenario cannot persist.

Other issues such as knife crime also must be dealt with. As the Minister is aware, unfortunately there has been a spike in and a prevalence of knife crime within the capital and elsewhere in recent months. There are no acceptable circumstances, other than for a person who must carry a blade for work purposes, in which it should be permitted or acceptable for a person to carry a knife in a public place. Fianna Fáil also offered the Minister legislation on this issue and I would appreciate it were she to take time to consider it.

I wish to mention the issue of free legal aid, which has been highly topical in these environs and has been reported in the media. Consideration must be given to people's entitlement to free legal aid. All Members are practising public representatives who have people presenting to their clinics for many reasons. As late as this week, people presented to my clinic who had sought access to the free legal aid scheme for civil cases but were unable to get it because the majority of the free legal aid budget is being gobbled up by criminal cases. I refer to battered wives and people in most desperate circumstances who are trying to reconstruct their lives and are trying to sort out the legal side of it. However, they cannot access free legal aid because legal aid in criminal cases is taking up the budget. I would like to discuss many other issues, including CCTV and the tagging of criminals. There must be tagging for people who are out on bail, and I do not subscribe to the view espoused by civil liberties organisations that this would be an infringement on people's civil liberties. As for the legislation Fianna Fáil offered on burglary and assault on elderly people, a judicial sentencing council that would promote consistency and uniformity in sentencing is required.

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