Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to congratulate the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on her appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality. Obviously, we worked in the last Dáil when she had responsibility in the area of European affairs with Brexit as the focus. I also wish the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, well.

In my judgment, the most important task the Minister will have in the coming years is completing the programme of Garda reform. We have talked about this for a decade. The single most important decision made in the justice area in recent decades was the establishment of an independent policing authority. I campaigned for that since the 2000s and I introduced legislation that was voted down by Governments in the early 2000s. I brought people to talk to politicians here. I remember meeting Denis Bradley, the vice chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board at the time. Nuala O'Loan, who was the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland at the time, also came down to address a meeting.

We need to follow through on these things and they cannot be unravelled. I have read very carefully the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing and also the minority report or the views of some who disagreed with some elements of what is, by and large, a very good report. I spoke to the chair of the commission, Kathleen O'Toole, on these matters. It is critical - I want to discuss this with the Minister over time - that the essence of having an independent oversight body is maintained. The Policing Authority has done that very well. I pay particular tribute to the first chairperson of the Policing Authority, Josephine Feehily, who was a very wise choice. She is a very strong woman and made an enormous contribution. I wish her successor, Bob Collins, every success.

There is a danger that we might get things wrong now and emasculate the successor body to the Policing Authority. I have no difficulty in amalgamating the authority with the Garda Inspectorate. The inspectorate was the initial response by a Government which did not want to establish a policing authority. I do not think there is a need for both. However, we need to ensure that the nexus of oversight and real authority is separate from the higher ranks of An Garda Síochána. It needs to be independent and strong, and needs to have powers. It needs to be the decision maker on top-level appointments.

The report's proposal for devolution to the 19 divisions needs to be implemented. We need to have the right people in the right jobs. The skill set for a modern policing system requires skills in human resources and financial investigation. These are not everyday commonplace skills and we need ensure we have them and have the right technology.

We will be looking carefully at the implementation of those things and I hope to have discussions with the Minister on them.

I will raise a couple of other points in the few minutes that I have left. I tried to talk to the Minister about an issue last week and I hope we can make direct contact with her more easily than has been the case to date. I am sure the difficulties in that regard have related to Covid-19. The operation of the International Protection Act 2015, legislation which I support, excludes direct representations being made by Members of this House. My experience of working in the Oireachtas for several decades tells me that institutions of the State that are not directly accountable through oversight by the Oireachtas suffer for its lack. I ask that the matter to which I refer be reviewed and I will give the details to the Minister. As things stand, any Member of the House who wants to put specific information about an asylum seeker before a decision-maker in the International Protection Office is precluded from doing so. I wrote to the Minister directly, asking for an oversight, and, perversely, received a reply from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, telling me what I already know. The reply quoted the 2015 Act. We must ensure that we have the capacity within the Oireachtas to hold every organisation to account in a modern democracy. I will discuss with the Minister the oversight of INIS that is required. I asked the Taoiseach earlier in the week why INIS did not transfer to the new Department for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration since the direct provision system will fall under the integration aspect of that new Department. He explained that the matter had been debated but not decided upon. That new Department might well still be the best location for it but that is a matter we can discuss at another time.

I also raise the issue of domestic violence. I commend An Garda Síochána on the proactive way in which it has handled the issue during the pandemic. Operation Faoiseamh has been successful. An Garda has been clear in its public utterances that anybody who is experiencing domestic violence can reach out. That has been important and has saved a lot of suffering. I must be honest and say that the true scale of domestic violence during the pandemic is unknown to us. We might never know its scale because much of it is still oblique. Some people, and women in particular, were trapped in houses with abusers, unable to reach out and suffered terribly during the lockdown period. It is important that we ensure the necessary resources are available through the Garda National Protective Service Bureau. There are 245 officers and 16 divisional protective service units across the country but we need to have a debate about whether that is enough. Another Deputy already made the point that supportive step-down places, areas of protection, accommodation and shelters must be available to people in order that they can readily escape positions where they are under incredible pressure and suffering direct mental, physical and sometimes sexual abuse. These are shocking things that we must address through robust mechanisms. An Garda Síochána is well up for that challenge and wants the resources to do a good job.

My final point relates to judicial reform. I welcome the allocation of additional money for the Judicial Council. We have talked for years about establishing such a council in order to have some common policy and training in respect of sentencing across the Judiciary so that it is not a lottery and to ensure consistency and understanding through an update of judicial training.

I look forward to teasing out these and many other matters with the Minister in the course of the months and, I hope, years to come. A broad range of responsibilities now falls to the Minister and I wish her every success with all of that. I hope my points on the capital side were understood. We need to invest in our court and prison infrastructures and our Garda stations in order to make sure that we can effectively house the people who are delivering our justice systems.

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