Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the attending. This legislation is on the back of a directive and there is not much to disagree with in it. I want to use of the time available to make a few points, however.

First, with regard to the transposition of directives, previous Deputies have said there is form here on waiting until the last minute of the last hour of the last day, which does not augur well in terms of our reputation in the European context. Indeed, during the formulation of directives, before it even gets to the directive stage after it is passed in Europe and we are expected to transpose it, we are not very good. In fact, we are one of the worst EU members for availing of the opportunity, afforded to us under the Lisbon treaty, for a period in which national parliaments can view the embryonic stage of proposed directives. It is not something we do well in Ireland at all. The last time I checked the statistics, which was some time ago, we were among the worst in terms of availing of that opportunity. Bringing Europe closer to the people and making optimum use of the Houses of the Oireachtas is something we could and should do much better.

As a former Senator, in one of the umpteen calls for Seanad reform and in various submissions and so forth, I proposed the Seanad could play a useful role in that when directives under whichever Department are referred at embryonic stage, it could have a debate and take a view. That could inform our national position before directives are struck. I am sure it does not apply to this particular directive because we all agree that financial fraud is a moving target in the sense that financial fraudsters are always developing new ways around the system to illegally secure money that is not theirs and belongs to other people, states, the EU, businesses, homes and so on.

I will, of course, support the legislation. I ask that in his deliberations with other junior Ministers and Cabinet Ministers, the Minister of State examines the potential to make greater use of the Houses of the Oireachtas, in particular, the Seanad, which would be only too delighted to play a role. Ultimately, it is a role we are not currently living up to in our democratic mandates as public representatives in taking a view, when we can, on proposed legislation that comes in from Europe.

When we adopt new laws, I am always conscious of resources that are available to gardaí. I would like to take this opportunity to put on record the fact that we almost pass laws here willy-nilly without considering the impact on the potential for gardaí and authorities to enforce those laws with the resources available to them, particularly in the context of fraud. We have various fraud squads, criminal assets bureaus and so on. The technical capabilities of the criminals involved in carrying out fraud is so advanced, however, I wonder and question whether, in fact, we are sufficiently investing the appropriate resources with the Garda to enforce such legislation.

It would be appropriate for me to put on record all our thanks, and certainly my own, to the members of An Garda Síochána. They have been hard-pressed over the course of the past ten months in keeping us all safe during the pandemic and, indeed, with the various checkpoints and so on to ensure we all stick within the rules as laid down on the advice of NPHET during the pandemic. We are all grateful for their ongoing work in that regard.

I will ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for a little bit of latitude because I am going to go off reservation here on a further issue of resourcing. As I have access at the moment to the Minister of State on the justice side, however, I want to talk about something that predates our time in government, that is, the restructuring of regions and divisions within the Garda.

At the time, in the north-west, Sligo housed the divisional and regional headquarters for that region. With the new Commissioner getting all the blame for this and the phrase "operational reasons" always being cited as the answer, we had a peculiar change where the divisional headquarters went to Letterkenny and the regional headquarters went to Galway, all of which is not in keeping with Project Ireland 2040 or the plans for that region in Sligo being a growth centre.

Worse than that, however, sites had been purchased and procured in Sligo, Clonmel and Macroom and were to form part of a public private partnership for the development of three new Garda stations. These Garda stations were announced approximately ten times by the previous Government. Indeed, any time a Minister was on tour for a photcall, he or she would be wheeled up in front of Sligo's existing Garda station, which goes back to the 19th century, to advise us about this new station.

In advance of the election last year, it emerged from my sources that the Government had moved the goalposts, and through a little bit of political engineering at Cabinet, the restructuring was about to shaft Sligo, Clonmel and Macroom. This was denied by the outgoing Minister with responsibility for justice at the time but, lo and behold, last December, before the new Government took over, the then Minister advised that due to operational reasons it was decided the Government was going to do up Sligo station instead.

I ask the Minister of State to look into this matter. I have spoken to him about it personally. We dished out €1.325 million of the public's money to procure this site in Sligo. I do not know what the status of Macroom and Clonmel is now because they were linked together. As a growth centre, if the Minister of State saw where existing gardaí are forced to work in Sligo, in such a large urban centre, he would be shocked. Indeed, the Minister's announcement at the time focused on the fact there were detailed plans for a total refurbishment of Sligo station. The authorities within An Garda Síochána locally have heard nothing about this. Nobody has visited to plan or engaged to see what is required. Yet, ten years between site purchase, the involvement of various political entities and 100 announcements by the previous Government we will now have no Garda station and an expensive site sitting idle. I ask the Minister of State to address this matter and come back to me.

See this speech in context