Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I could not see our visitors, who must be in the Gallery behind me, but I would like to join with colleagues in welcoming Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring, the commissioner, Mr. Mark Toland, and colleagues who I understand may be with them here this evening.

I would again like to record my thanks to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for attending and engaging with us in this debate this evening. I want to thank all the members of the committee and the other colleagues who are not members but who took the time to join us over the course of these couple of hours. I note the Minister's welcome for the report at the outset of her contribution and I agree that reform is an ongoing process but I would add that there is a body of steps that can and should be taken now, and I hope she would recognise that many of those are contained in this report.

I welcome the Minister's confirmation that she had a specific meeting in this regard last month with the chairperson of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, and I am happy to note that the Minister is shortly to go to Cabinet to secure approval to prepare heads of a Bill to amend Part 4 of the Garda Síochána Act of 2005 in line, she advises, and I note with some encouragement, with the recommendations contained in the joint committee's report. I noted from the Minister's contribution that the changes will mirror closely the recommendations in the committee's report. That indication is welcome and hopefully will be realised in the not too distant future when all of us will have the chance to again address these matters in the course of the progress of the facilitating legislation.

I acknowledge the recent transfer of the senior Garda appointments function to the Policing Authority. It came into effect as of the first day of last month. I again urge the Minister's acceptance that oversight and accountability, in real supervisory terms, and especially of the higher ranks, should be vested in the Policing Authority. That it is a relatively new body is not an acceptable excuse for not giving the authority the responsibilities and powers it needs to be the force for change it can and must be and, I emphasise, the guarantor of a police service into the future that has, as I stated earlier, the deserved confidence, respect and support of all citizens.

Unannounced visits to Garda stations and related functional areas is a necessary reform in the context of the role of the Garda Inspectorate. I urge that this provision is introduced as soon as possible. It should be noted that the inspectorate does not expect to employ this power on a regular let alone a continuous basis. It is a power that would be employed on an occasional or reserve basis, and it should be provided for.

I emphasise the importance of a change in the sadly all too evident skewed view of the actions and intentions of whistleblowers from within Garda ranks. It is imperative that this cultural change is not only encouraged and promoted but insisted on with, I state again, penalties applying where there is a failure to respect or worse the actions of a colleague who reports or brings to public attention wrongdoing or inappropriate behaviour by members of the Garda service.

The Minister referenced that resourcing and funding will continue to be kept under review. It is fine to have a watchful eye on resourcing and funding but the oversight bodies need to be recognised as the critical bodies to ensure the achievement of the goals we have all declared we wish to see achieved in regard to policing in this jurisdiction. In consultation with the respective bodies, resourcing and funding should be increased and, in line with any additional roles and responsibilities provided either by legislation or regulation, as the case might be, there should be a commensurate increase in resourcing and funding to ensure that the bodies entrusted with these roles and responsibilities are able to function, and I repeat the words, efficiently and effectively and as we would all hope that they will.

I will conclude by thanking whatever process it is that allows for the selection of a committee's report. This is the second such bite of the cherry we have had from the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality, and I very much welcome it. I also add, with some humility, that I believe we also deserved it. That is a tribute in return to my colleagues who are no longer in the Chamber, and I thank them for their kind words in the course of their contributions.

I look forward to engaging with the Minister on these matters in the coming period of time. I wish the exercise she has indicated a fair wind. I extend very best wishes to each of the three bodies, GSOC, the Policing Authority and the Garda Inspectorate. I hope the exercise in which they were very important participants will prove rewarding and worthwhile to them in their roles in the future.

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