James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, well in his expanded role over the coming months and I acknowledge the wonderful work the Government did for the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I wish her and her husband well. It is wonderful to see the Government is making progress on making being in politics more family friendly, from being in the Oireachtas right up to being a member of government.

I welcome the Bill, which addresses the constitutional issues that emerged in the Supreme Court judgment in the Wayne Ellis case in 2019. It will ensure that the checks and balances between the courts and the Parliament are maintained. A robust criminal justice system is essential for protecting our communities. We need to examine properly the ability to role out the use of community CCTV surveillance systems that protect communities but do not invade people's privacy. This has been an enormous issue in many towns and villages throughout the country and legislation such as this needs to be expanded further to try to help communities with regard to local authorities and the data privacy aspects that have caused consternation in many Garda divisions and with local authorities over who has responsibility. I ask the Minister of State to continue to do the work the Government is doing to solve this particular issue. It will be a huge improvement for local gardaí.

When discussing this legislation it is important to acknowledge the role that An Garda Síochána has played in recent months. It has been an exceptionally challenging time for policing in Ireland. Earlier, I spoke about the many new challenges that social media has brought to policing in the country for members of An Garda Síochána. Generally the work they have done in recent months has gone unacknowledged in many quarters and as a Deputy I would like to say that it is exceptionally important that they receive the recognition they deserve given the unprecedented level of danger they are in from Covid-19.

With regard to the drive to reduce the incidence of crime, anti-social behaviour, public disorder, vandalism and the general fear of crime, from my discussions with An Garda Síochána it is in favour of CCTV systems as an aid to policing in our communities. This recognises the national demand from community and business groups for CCTV systems in their respective towns and cities. While the use of CCTV by a police service can have great merit, its use can have a direct impact on the human rights of individuals. Therefore, we need to think carefully about how we ensure there is transparency in such systems so communities throughout the country are aware of the implications of the implementation of such a system.

Deputy Howlin spoke about the United Kingdom and the efforts being made there to improve community policing. The safer streets fund of £45 million includes planned measures for CCTV and is a very interesting initiative. It is something I would like to see us do here to improve public places, such as our parks, to ensure they are safe and to reduce the levels of crime and antisocial behaviour as a method of improving safety in our communities.

The move by the UK to appoint a surveillance camera commissioner is also very wise to try to help with similar administrative and legislative issues to those facing our local authorities and An Garda Síochána on a local basis. It is absolutely crazy when we stop and think about the fact we have installed multi-million euro CCTV systems in Garda barracks throughout the country and they cannot record. People are getting away with crimes who otherwise would easily be convicted because the gardaí could collect data from the footage. Even if it were deleted at the end of each day it could be kept on file in the event that it could be of some use in a criminal investigation, whether with regard to small levels of crime or theft or more severe cases. There is a lot of merit to putting in place these systems. I have to acknowledge this.

This was discussed very often when I was a member of Cork County Council and there seem to be very little hope of addressing it. I spoke to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, before she took leave and she told me the Department is trying its best to address this. I ask the Minister of State to keep his foot on the pedal in the coming months on this issue. Local authorities throughout the country have millions of euro invested in these systems for local gardaí but my understanding is that they are not being put to full use. They could be of enormous benefit to members of An Garda Síochána.

The work An Garda Síochána has done in recent months has been exceptional. It has been very challenging for them and they have dealt with protests and other situations where their health has been put at serious risk. As a parliamentarian and member of Dáil Éireann I acknowledge this and thank them for this work. I say to the Minister of State go n-éirí an t-ádh leat and I wish him well in the coming months.

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