John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate and I have listened with interest to some of the contributions, which were varied, dealing with everything from the Government's response to the policing issues we have faced over recent years to the roots of crime.

I have lived in the Rathfarnham Garda district for almost 52 years. Burglaries have risen in that district by an unprecedented 66% in the past year and a half. I have never witnessed anything like that spike in burglaries in my 26 years living in Knocklyon and 50 years in Rathfarnham. To establish the root cause is difficult. The proximity of some of those areas to the N81 and the M50 allows speedy access and exit to would-be burglars. In part it was due to the reduction in garda numbers and their reduced presence on the ground and on patrol. Policing was stretched to its absolute limit in recent years. The spike affected the constituency from Marlay Park through Knocklyon, Firhouse, Kilnamanagh, Kingswood and Old Bawn and beyond. Residents' associations have begun to police their areas through social media, not actively but by developing active associations and alerting neighbours to burglaries that have occurred or to suspicious activity, which has been of great assistance to the gardaí. This made me see how archaic the Garda social media platform is. It has not taken off. There is a Garda text alert system. The residents' associations' text alert system never existed before. That was how the public had to respond. A neighbour on my road was burgled three times between January 2015 and December 2016. I could cite many more instances.

I appreciate the pressure on the Government in respect of Garda funding and numbers, but sometimes in emergencies it is necessary to think laterally. There are 88 references to the Garda Reserve in the report of the Garda Inspectorate. Many members of the public have never heard of the Garda Reserve - they do not know it exists - but it can constitute 10% of the Garda force at any one time.

One of the recommendations in the report was the establishment of a special abbreviated training programme for all qualified reserve members who apply and are suitable for appointment as full-time members. According to the report, some Garda Reserve members have over seven years of operational experience, are already attested and trained and could be deployed to front-line duties within a much shorter timeframe than the significantly longer process for recruiting and training new Garda members. The Minister did not mention the role of the Garda Reserve. To some degree, this recommendation came about five years too late.

The report goes on to state that An Garda Síochána conducted a national survey of the operational resources on duty and on patrol during two days, selected at random, in August 2014. The survey was completed by all 96 Garda districts at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and at 11 p.m. on a Saturday. The objective was to provide a picture at a moment in time of the number of members in divisions carrying out front-line policing duties. Some of the key results of the survey included the finding that much higher proportions of gardaí scheduled to work actually came on duty on Tuesday than on Saturday, which beggars belief, in particular in city areas where a large amount of petty crime takes place on weekend nights. On the Saturday night, only 34 reserves were on duty nationally, out of a total of 1,100. There were no Garda reserves on duty at all in three main city centres at a time when Garda numbers were significantly reduced.

The report goes on to refer to bringing the community into police stations being an initiative adopted by many other police services and the inspectorate stated that it supports the community open day initiatives that operate in Garda stations. The report also refers to the fact that the introduction of the Garda Reserve into policing in Ireland was an excellent way to introduce volunteering into policing and also increased police resources and visibility. However, according to the report, unlike other police services the scheme has not been extended to cadet schemes for young people or to roles that could be performed by non-uniformed volunteers.

The Garda Inspectorate report contains some very critical statements in its comments on the Garda Reserve and its utilisation. It states that Garda reserves are volunteers who serve in a variety of ways as trained uniform support for An Garda Síochána. The inspectorate was informed that, despite being authorised under law and having received considerable training, reserves are not consistently or strategically utilised for operational purposes. This happened at a time when the Garda force was depleted.

Critically, the report states that while the overall management of the reserve programme continues to rest with human resources in the Garda, there is no identified champion of the Garda Reserve programme. I would like the Minister to state how she and the Garda Commissioner intend to address that.Those in the Garda Reserve are not yellow pack workers or any kind of threat to An Garda Síochána. A similar reserve system exists in most developed countries, but the Garda Inspectorate, which is an independent body, reported that in our system there is no champion for the Garda Reserve in An Garda Síochána.

One of its key recommendations was the development of a strategic plan for maximising the effectiveness and contribution of the Garda Reserve. The report refers toGarda Reserve recruitment, which it described as passive, and states that the website is not interactive and needs to be updated and that there is room to develop a more strategic and dynamic process for recruiting Garda Reserve members. The report also outlines how increased recruitment of Garda staff and reserves provides an excellent opportunity to bring people from the broader community into An Garda Síochána. Many reserves may apply to become members of An Garda Síochána in the future.

According to the report, there is no recruitment process within the Garda which takes account of the experience a member of the reserve force or Garda staff may have, whereas in other police services joining the force as a member of police staff or volunteer allows an individual to gain experience and provides an excellent opportunity for a person to decide whether policing is the right choice for him or her. The report also recommends the actions that need to be taken. I have not heard the Minister speak about this, but it is something to which we will return again.

The inspectorate referred to the need to re-establish the reserve management unit to provide a central point of contact and co-ordination, provide training for all staff on the role, responsibility and use of the reserve, establish a reserve command structure with consistent reporting, assign frameworks for reserve members and many other issues. In terms of the deployment of reserves, the report mentions that 1,000 reserves are available for patrol. The inspectorate previously recommended changes to improve their deployment.

I again refer to the survey results. A total of four reserves were on duty during the day and 34 during the night when the survey took place. The inspectorate expected to see considerably more reserves on duty. A total of 38 Garda reserves were on duty at a given point of time out of a total of almost 1,100, at a time when policing was on its knees in terms of numbers. I have focused on one aspect of policing and crime. As I said, the Garda Reserve was mentioned 88 times in the 170 page report to which I referred. The Minister has received some answers from the inspectorate in the report and I will pursue further answers from her in this regard.

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