Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate on crime. Over the last two days the issue of crime has been raised with me by two constituents, one of whom is a retail outlet operator who experienced an attempted robbery, while the other is an older person who shared her concern about being the victim of a burglary or an assault. The confidence and supply arrangement that Fianna Fáil has agreed with Fine Gael provides for an increase in Garda numbers of up to 15,000, investment in CCTV and a mandate for the Policing Authority to oversee a review of the boundaries of Garda districts and the dispersion of Garda stations. I welcome these measures. The commitment to increase Garda numbers is particularly relevant to Kildare. I know that Kildare Deputies in the past have already made this point and I want to reiterate it today: Kildare has the lowest number of gardaí per head of population in the country. As additional gardaí are to be recruited, I feel that a bonus number should be provided to Garda divisions such as Kildare, which have a low ratio of gardaí per head of population, in order to address the imbalance in Garda resources. This can be achieved over time.

There are two main points that I wish to raise in this debate. The first is the possibility of increasing the number of civilian staff in the force to enable gardaí to concentrate on front-line activities, while second point relates to the concerns of older people about crime. I have campaigned to increase the number of civilian staff in the Garda. Building upon the findings of the Garda Inspectorate report, there is a clear need to ramp up the use of civilian staff in the force. By increasing civilian staff, we could alleviate the administrative burden currently placed on gardaí. New workforce planning and outsourcing of certain non-essential duties would help to free up gardaí to get them back on the beat, visible in their communities and directly tackling crime. Civilian staff currently provide several vital operational supports in areas such as the Garda Vetting Unit, the Garda Information Services Centre and the fixed-charge processing office, all of which employ civilian staff successfully. They also provide vital support in a range of other services such as human resources, training, IT and procurement. In doing so they release trained gardaí from administrative duties and make them available for operational policing. There is value in exploring further opportunities for increasing the ratio of civilians to gardaí, which will result in a further transfer of gardaí from administrative and other positions to front-line duties. The transfer of border control functions at Dublin Airport from An Garda Síochána to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, is an excellent example of this.

I know from my clinics that families and elderly people, in particular, are living in fear of crime. Hardened burglars are not afraid to commit crime because of lenient sentences and low Garda numbers. A set of specific measures to tackle burglaries across the State should be put in place which should include mandatory sentencing for repeat burglary offenders and electronic tagging for repeat offenders on bail. Ensuring CCTV cameras are located at all major road junctions to enable An Garda Síochána to identify and apprehend criminal gangs using the motorway network is vital. Last year, Fianna FáiI published a Bill to introduce a mandatory three years in jail for criminals convicted of burglary and a minimum of seven years on third burglary convictions.

We believe that there is a need for tougher sentences on those guilty of particular abhorrent crimes, namely, assaults on older people. It is important that we send a strong and clear message that assaults on older people will not be tolerated and will be severely punished. There has been a significant increase in rural isolation, particularly affecting older people, which has led to an increased vulnerability and a greater fear of crime among many communities. There has been a number of high profile cases of older people being targeted in their homes by burglars. In response to this, during the last Dáil we published legislation which specifies a minimum prison sentence of three years for people convicted of assault causing serious harm to older people and threatening to kill or cause serious harm to anyone aged over 65. While crime against older people is not specifically recorded as a heading in the CSO, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that people are more vulnerable to attacks as a result of increased isolation. In December 2014 the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland called for specific targets to be put in place to target crime against older people because such crimes were less likely to result in prosecution. We are seeking a similar analysis here to establish the rates of success in bringing crimes against older people to a successful court outcome.

See this speech in context