Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the motion and my party supports it. I want to speak briefly on the report on the Future of Policing in Ireland. Inherent in it are some very valuable recommendations, which would very much tally with the methodology set out and the motion that is before us.There are 50 recommendations in the report and I will refer to a few of them. These recommendations are eminently sensible and predicated on a wide consultation whereby those involved in the report went out into the communities.

Recommendation 22 states:

The building of genuine community partnerships should be a requirement for all Garda districts. Gardaí should be assessed for their performance in this respect, and it should be a factor in determining assignments and promotions.

It also refers to district policing plans.

Recommendation 26 refers to the redeployment of experienced gardaí currently employed in other duties. It states:

Job specifications should be developed for all positions in the police service, clearly indicating the skills and expertise required and whether police powers are necessary for the job or not. If not, the presumption should be that a non-sworn person should occupy the position.

Regarding the number of gardaí in rural Ireland and across urban Ireland, there is a clear view in the report that perhaps too many gardaí are involved in administrative duties, some of necessity, but that if there is scope to redeploy people to the front line, that should be accelerated in a timely fashion.

Recommendation 40 states:

District police should be in close communication with their communities.

An Garda Síochána should produce regular, and eventually real-time, open data feeds to the public.

Public apps should be developed at the community level to enable residents to report their concerns, and police to disseminate the information about matters of interest from crime prevention to road closures.

An Garda Síochána should develop and implement a new social media strategy. In all districts the police should use social media and other technology tools to engage with the local community.

If we can start the work of bringing to fruition these recommendations, that will have a great impact. If we can deploy these resources at the district level in a way that allows the community to communicate directly, using the new technologies that are available, with the gardaí, that will provide real-time information and that should give rise to a real-time response. There is still a lag time in many districts and the evidence of that is clear. If there is a genuine willingness to implement these recommendations, that will have a bearing on some of the issues, particularly for rural areas. Chapter 6 of the report on the Future of Policing in Ireland is quite stark. It refers to the recording of crime statistics. It states:

it is hard to say with confidence what the level of crime is. But we encountered concerns about crime wherever we travelled in our consultations around the country, both in urban and rural areas. Fear of crime, which is often greater than the reality of crime, is also a serious matter in itself, badly affecting quality of life. We have found many examples in our public consultations of communities and individuals living with an unsettling level of fear of crime.

Deputy Ó Caoláin referred to this issue in his contribution. There are specific recommendations regarding greater police visibility, engagement and accessibility and that this would help address that fear of crime. It would be helpful if we, collectively, as an Oireachtas can work on those issues and if we could instill confidence in the community. Deputy Ó Laoghaire referred to this issue as well and mentioned poor Shane O'Farrell whose family still has not received justice. Until such time as they - to name one family among thousands of people who have been the victims of crime - receive justice, we will continue to have a lag in terms of confidence. Furthermore, until such time as we accelerate the recommendations and principles in the report on the Future of Policing in Ireland, I fear the lack of confidence in some parts of the country will continue to be an issue.

We have an opportunity to address that. We have the tools of the trade to seek to resolve the very many issues brought before us in this motion. We must ensure the resources are deployed in a smart way to ensure people, particularly in rural areas, have confidence that when they report an incident it is responded to in a timely fashion and that justice is done in a timely fashion. We must also ensure he preventative element of criminality is such that if the resources are deployed in a smart way, employing the technologies, that we can do much to prevent the crimes against people we are articulating and that are espoused in this motion.

I, too, would like to raise the issue of clarity regarding CCTV. We know that there are issues regarding the GDPR and whether citizens going about their daily business have certain entitlements to the right to privacy. We need to overcome that challenge because there must be a balance between protecting our communities, ensuring there is proper surveillance and ensuring the balance of rights for individuals who are going about their daily business in an honest fashion. If we were to poll people throughout the country, I believe the vast majority of them would want to have a public infrastructure that involves some degree of surveillance of sensitive areas throughout our towns and villages and within rural communities.

The vast majority of people would want a public infrastructure that involves some degree of surveillance of sensitive areas throughout our towns and villages and within rural communities. We support the motion. On the issue of bail in respect of the Criminal Justice Act, we have to be mindful, notwithstanding the fact that we are supporting the motion, of its constitutionality. To be fair to the proposers of the motion, they are seeking to reduce the level of recidivism and that should be supported.

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