Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I need to reference the fact that we in Sinn Féin believe Fianna Fáil's motion should have been ruled out of order. We wrote to the Ceann Comhairle about the matter. We fully respect the decision taken by him that, in his opinion, it was not contradictory to what we had scheduled for debate tomorrow night. Even though we made the complaint, we fully respect his ruling, even if we do not agree with it.

I will start by outlining some of the things on which we do agree. There are a number of differences between all of the counter motions. I will formally move Sinn Féin's. We can agree that we need An Garda Síochána to succeed and that we also need a well functioning police service, as the Minister said, to be trusted by everyone. That is the cornerstone of our democracy. We also need An Garda Síochána to play a highly important role in Irish society that the public can trust. The confidence it holds among the public is a crucial element of effective policing. We can also all agree that there is an immediate need to reassure the public that urgent action is being taken to implement real reform and cultural change to ensure oversight, particularly within the management levels of An Garda Síochána.

We do not support Fianna Fáil's motion for one particular reason - it calls on "the Government to take immediate steps to rectify the real and substantial crisis in confidence in An Garda Síochana". It does not go on to state how that can happen. Yes, it talks about strengthening the powers of the Policing Authority. However, when we discussed the establishment of the authority, Fianna Fáil chose to vote against a number of amendments put before the House which would have done exactly what the motion is proposing to do and more. Even though it is late to the party, it is welcome that it is late to it in providing for real accountability and in giving real powers to the Policing Authority.

My second point is about how the motion calls on "the Government to request the Policing Authority to assess the role and capacity of the Garda Commissioner to restore public confidence in An Garda Síochána". It is wrong of Fianna Fáil to do this. I am sure Deputy Jim O'Callaghan and his party are quite capable of assessing Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan's role and capacity as Garda Commissioner to restore public confidence in An Garda Síochána. Trying to foist that responsibility on an independent body when there is no statutory provision for the Government to ask the Policing Authority to carry it out is, in all honesty, a very cynical move by Deputy Jim O'Callaghan. I said today that I thought this was a very cowardly motion by Fianna Fáil. Let us get to the point of what it is about. It is to try to get Fianna Fáil off the hook tomorrow night when there is a motion that actually is based in legislation that we will move to ask the Government to remove the Garda Commissioner from her position under section 11(1)(c) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005. It is well within the remit of this Chamber to express that view, regardless of whether we believe the Tánaiste should remove the Garda Commissioner.

Deputy Jim O'Callaghan talked about questions not being answered by senior members of An Garda Síochána when they came before the committee and how we had not received straight answers to straight questions. It is a bit rich of Fianna Fáil when it will not even answer a very simple question: does it believe the Cabinet should make a decision to remove Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan from her position - yes or no? I have heard nobody from Fianna Fáil answer that question to date. If they do believe it, they will have the opportunity to support the motion tomorrow night. If they do not believe it, they will vote against it, but it is wrong to try to foist the responsibility for making their own assessment of the Garda Commissioner and expect the Government to ask an independent statutory body to carry out that assessment. All of the mutterings from Deputy Jim O'Callaghan and his party suggest they do not believe Ms O'Sullivan has the capacity to carry out the programme of reform to restore public confidence. The Deputy and his party have said they cannot express confidence in the Garda Commissioner. He has also said that if Fianna Fáil were in government, in all likelihood, she would be removed as Garda Commissioner. I know that it is probably very safe to sit on the fence, but if they sit on it for too long, they will get splinters in their backsides. Perhaps it is time to get off the fence and make a decision on the motion tomorrow night. That is all I will say on the matter.

I want to speak to our amendment to Fianna Fáil's motion. It would go even further in strengthening the powers of the Policing Authority. We state the authority should be consulting local communities and joint policing committees, JPCs, which are provided for in legislation to obtain their views and experience of policing. It should be able to conduct its functions without needing the consent of the Minister. If we are serious about removing policing from political influence or the political process, we should give it full autonomy to make decisions on the formulation of policing plans and full authority to remove a Garda Commissioner, if it so decides, rather than just making a recommendation to the Government to carry out that function. We should give the authority the power to remove and appoint senior members of An Garda Síochána.

The amendment also seeks to give the Policing Authority the authority to deal with complaints and discipline senior members of An Garda Síochána, right up to deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner and the Garda Commissioner. We also believe the membership of the authority should be increased from its current number to 21. It should include members from a variety of backgrounds and with expertise, including legal, human rights, academic, civil society and law enforcement. We also need diversity within its membership. It should be a statutory requirement that the membership of the authority be representative of society in general. For these reasons, we will not be supporting Fianna Fáil's motion and will be putting forward our own counter motion.

With regard to the Government's programme of reform, I met the Minister last week and received a commitment that while the commission had been established, taking 12 to 18 months to report back was not a reason ongoing reform could not take place. It is crucial that ongoing reform take place in line with the deliberations of the commission. We could take very quick steps in this Chamber to try to restore public confidence. One, as I have previously said, would be the removal of the Garda Commissioner. Another would be implementing in a very speedy manner the necessary legislation to increase the powers of the Policing Authority, GSOC and the Garda Inspectorate. I find it unbelievable the Garda Inspectorate cannot make unannounced visits to Garda stations. It actually has to give three months notice before it can make a visit to a Garda station, which I find ironic. These are very simple steps that could be taken very quickly to try to improve the accountability and transparency of An Garda Síochána.

That is how we try to improve public confidence.

It should also be noted we are not just talking about restoring public confidence in An Garda Síochána. We are also trying to restore some of the morale within the police service because there is no doubt that it is at an all-time low. When the Garda Commissioner comes before an Oireachtas committee and blames every single member of force for the ills it has gone through in the past number of weeks, I do not think that is helpful to morale. It should be recognised that there are many good men and women of An Garda Síochána who do a very difficult job daily, some of them for not a lot of money, let us be honest about it and I think it was wrong of the Commissioner to say that.

I reiterate to Fianna Fáil that it should get off the fence, decide whether it believes the Cabinet should remove Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan, and not try to foist that responsibility onto the independent Policing Authority. That is wrong and it does not do the independent Policing Authority any justice.

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