Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome any increase in the justice budget, particularly an increase that goes to the Garda Síochána. However, there is serious discontent on a number of fronts within the force, not least within the area of pay and conditions of employment for members of the gardaí and for industrial relations generally. The swingeing cuts of the past number of years to pay and conditions of employment have undermined individual gardaí and their families and their ability to properly and fully carry out their functions in protecting the public. That has not been helped by the reductions in Garda numbers of up to 2,500 members, initiated by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government, which introduced the moratorium on recruitment and the non-filling of vacant posts. That reduction has heaped huge pressure on the gardaí as they try to fulfil their role in society. I acknowledge the commitment in the programme for Government to raise Garda numbers to 15,000, but there appears to be no timeframe for that. Perhaps this is something the Minister will address in her response to the debate.

The situation I have outlined has been raised publicly by the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. They rightly demand that the area of pay and conditions of employment be addressed urgently, particularly the two-tier pay system now in place in An Garda Síochána, which should be abolished forthwith. There is also an issue with the pay of Garda recruits and there should be an immediate reinstatement to the pre-2008 attestation salary for all new Garda recruits. The salaries were arbitrarily cut by 10% by the last Government and new recruits now have a basic wage of little more than the minimum wage. They have lost the rent allowance of €4,017, which was always recognised, by the Conroy Commission and others, as being part of core pay. The cuts to pay and conditions must be reversed to ensure there is proper support for members of the Garda Síochána and proper policing within the State. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has already indicated that it will not be engaging in the modernisation and reform programme 2016-2021, announced recently by Commissioner O'Sullivan, until the whole question of pay and conditions is satisfactorily concluded. It points out that there are 100 reforms within the modernisation programme and these cannot be implemented without consultation with, and the co-operation of, the various Garda bodies, the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in particular. It is time for gardaí to have the right to be represented by a trade union and to have all the rights associated with trade union membership, including the right to take industrial action.

I wish to raise one further issue, to which I intend to return on another occasion.

I am not quite sure whether the Minister herself, her officials or senior management in An Garda Síochána understand the devastation being caused by the illegal drug trade, and not just in places such as Dublin. In every town and village and at every crossroads in this country, drugs are easily available. Families are being absolutely destroyed by the trade. There is a focus on this in the Dublin area at the moment, and rightly so, but there are equally serious problems throughout the country. For instance, parents are being forced to pay the drug debts of their children. It has also contributed to significant rates of suicide among young males. There must now also be a focus on local areas and regional and local drug task forces. There needs to be a zero-tolerance approach to the issue, not just in the bigger cities such as Dublin but in every town and village and at every crossroads where these drugs are available throughout the country.

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