Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Táim sásta go bhfuil an tAire sinsearach, the senior Minister, is here to deal with this issue.

The Garda Commissioner announced a ban on Garda overtime two weeks ago. That caused considerable concern among gardaí, the Garda Representative Association, GRA, and the public. Something like this occurred in December last year as well but for a much shorter period and funding was found. This year, we are facing a ban that will last for the full final three months of the year. I am concerned that the scale of the pullback in policing this will cause will have potentially serious ramifications for crime and community safety.

The lack of front-line gardaí means overtime has become a fact of life. Sergeants and superintendents say that overtime is essential just to keep a station and a district functioning on a basic level.

Stations cannot function properly without it. For all the Minister's talk, most Garda stations only run at a standstill, even with additional probationary gardaí. Practically every Garda subdistrict and division has fewer gardaí than in 2010 and 2011. To give the Minister a flavour of that in Cork, Garda strength in Blackrock Garda station is down from 31 to 22, Ballincollig from 23 to 19, Watercourse Road from 50 to 45 and Togher is down from 61 to 59. Across the division, Garda strength has declined from by 22 from 700 to 678. However, the position is much worse because senior gardaí have been centralised in specialist units. Who will take the place of upwards of 22 gardaí in the division? It is the current gardaí who do more to fill the gaps through approved overtime. In the absence of this overtime, operations and ordinary patrols will not proceed. Overtime is needed to try to fill the gaps and keep an adequate number of gardaí rostered and patrols and checkpoints on the streets.

A ban on overtime is a blunt instrument. This is essentially an outright ban, which means we are heading for a long winter with gardaí being pulled and stretched in every direction. The Christmas period often sees an increase in crime, specifically burglary and public order issues, as well as greater demand for managing major events and increased road traffic patrols and checkpoints. Gardaí will be expected to do all this with only the most basic resources.

The Minister will echo Commissioner Harris's statement that overtime will still be available for specific policing and security operations, but only with the approval of the relevant assistant commissioner following discussion with the deputy commissioner in charge of policing and security. All additional overtime sought by any station will have to go to the desk of two of the most senior gardaí in the country. Officers have been advised that it should only be incurred if approved in exceptional circumstances. Either the two senior gardaí in question will spend the rest of the year going through reasonable overtime applications or, far more likely, many sergeants and superintendents will assume they are not meant to ask. In the meantime, much work that the gardaí would do and want to do will not happen.

Last week, I paid tribute to the Garda on the significant successes it achieved recently in tackling the scourge of serious and organised crime. Some of that involved major operations and investigations and was intelligence-led. A significant roll-out of checkpoints and surveillance also played an important role. Will such measures be sanctioned? Will we see patrols on the streets where we need them? A lack of overtime will seriously hamper the ability of the Garda to continue with these operations. The Minister said he meets gardaí regularly. He needs to meet the Garda Representative Association, GRA, on this issue, and with Commissioner Harris to see how this can be resolved because I am concerned that this will not work over three months.

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