David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has long been the position of Sinn Féin to support international co-operation on justice matters within a sovereign framework that ensures human rights compliance. Sinn Féin supports the State's participation in European Union-level and international co-operation in criminal justice matters where this clearly serves the public interest, but not to cede national sovereignty over or democratic oversight of such matters. In particular, we will resist any moves towards establishing exclusive EU competence over any area of justice, including that of police training. That said, Sinn Féin supports the practice of sharing knowledge and experience in an effort to improve standards. We wish to ensure that all EU and international co-operation in criminal justice matters, including when this simply pertains to training, complies fully with human rights standards and that any co-operation or voluntary harmonisation works to enhance human rights. I urge the Minister of State to ensure the Irish delegation and representatives to CEPOL reflect this.

As the Minister of State is aware, however, beyond this Sinn Féin has adopted a general policy of critical engagement on EU policies and legislative proposals. This means we are willing to support those we believe will be of benefit to the Irish people and will oppose those we believe will be detrimental. In deciding its position on justice matters, Sinn Féin examines any EU policy proposal against critical engagement criteria I will set out. The first is whether it respects or fundamentally compromises national sovereignty over justice. The second is whether it advances or rolls back human rights protections. The third is whether it respects or compromises the interests of smaller nations or minority groups within those nations. The fourth is whether the proposal was arrived at through democratic dialogue and consultation with civil society and fifth, whether its outworking will be transparent and subject to democratic accountability. Sinn Féin is not alone within the European Union in this regard, as many different countries, political parties and individuals within systems have similar types of approaches to these issues.

To be valid, any European Union harmonisation or co-operation measure in the area of justice or training for those engaged in the administration of justice should have as its objective the increased protection of human rights. I seek clarity from the Minister of State as to whether this is the case in this regard. I further ask the Minister of State to stipulate the number of officers who will be assigned to CEPOL as our communities already are suffering from the reduction in policing numbers and resources. Will the Minister of State indicate what resources will be allocated to CEPOL, as per section 4 of Article 6 in Chapter II of the regulation? I further ask the Minister of State to indicate whether the financial irregularities uncovered in CEPOL in the past have been addressed to his satisfaction. At one point, the European Court of Auditors found there had been a high number of breaches of EU administrative and financial rules at CEPOL and I hope the necessary changes have taken place.

Sinn Féin is committed to ensuring we have policing that reflects total human rights compliance. We need robust standards and systems to end and prevent into the future the types of systemic human rights abuses that have characterised police forces across this island in the past. Moreover, Sinn Féin believes that there is no inherent conflict between human rights and policing because good policing is the protection of human rights. This should be the core position of any learning activities steered by CEPOL and, ultimately, CEPOL should not be allowed to dictate the training needs of domestic police services. The Irish people alone have the right to determine policy questions and to set the law regarding the administration of justice in Ireland and the training of those who administer it. There should be a greatly increased role in civil society for advising on training matters for An Garda Síochána. For example, there is great scope for increased co-operation between An Garda Síochána and the domestic violence and sexual violence sectors. They are well placed to advise on further training for gardaí. This must be accompanied by appropriate resourcing.

Within a human rights based framework Sinn Féin supports international co-operation in the area of justice where this is necessary to fight crime and, in particular, cross-Border trafficking of drugs, weapons and human beings and in the interests of child protection. However, we believe it is equally essential to safeguard against the creation of further victims through human rights violations, so such measures must be compatible with human security and reflected in CEPOL training.

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