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

I will begin where my colleague, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, concluded, namely in public confidence in the gardaí. Irish confidence in the gardaí has been maintained quite consistently. It is testament to the standing in which An Garda Síochána is held but it is not infinite which the force can take for granted. I acknowledge and will elaborate on something which Deputy O'Callaghan said, and the Minister for Justice and Equality might pass it on to the Garda authorities, which is the gratitude felt in communities in constituencies such as mine for significant Garda successes. I would highlight some in recent months and am thinking of one in Citywest recently in my own constituency. A phenomenon that is also becoming more common, and has crept into our society without our noticing, is the presence of armed support units. Recently, in my local service station, I noticed a garda with a gun in his holster pass me as we were both buying coffee. The Garda has secured considerable wins. Gardaí patrol our city and they continue to keep the people safe. There was an incident recently involving the Kinahan gang where they put their lives at considerable risk in order to protect people.

The Garda has opened up in recent years. The role of the joint policing committee at local authority levels is a process about which they were initially reticent but my experience as a member of one is that the gardaí have become more open to the process in terms of engaging with public representatives and the public on matters which are important to them. Members of the public are no longer scared to have a go at gardaí at public meetings and at community meetings, which is something that would not have happened 10 years ago. That is a healthy development. However, one does not want that healthy dialogue to pass a tipping point where it moves to a place of disrespect for the force.

The force, as a collective, may count its lucky stars that in spite of there having been almost 2 million false breath tests which have never been accounted for, no rationale has been given for it. From all the different organisations within the Garda - an investigative force, which has uncovered the most incredible evidence relating to crimes, secured convictions in the most phenomenal cases which have come before the courts, and secured prosecutions of criminals from all classes and none - no one has been able to explain why and how this happened or who initiated it.

The role of the Garda Inspectorate is expanded in this Bill. I want to focus on the Garda Reserve. Its numbers are dropping but out of the 120 or 130 pages in the original Garda Inspectorate report in December 2015, there were 80 references to the Garda Reserve. The report said it needed a champion in the Garda, that its role needed to be buffered, that there was a role for an officer corps, a cadet corps. None of these have been acted on in any significant way by the Garda. It will take the role of oversight bodies such as the Garda Inspectorate and the Policing Authority to ensure that happens.

I believe this Bill is timely, and very important in giving significant additional, necessary powers to the Policing Authority.

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