Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin has indicated that it will support this Bill and I endorse that support. The criminal justice system is something of a mystery to most people. They are unsure and, in many cases, puzzled about how decisions are made. This is sometimes not helped by the media who use the courts system to sensationalise their stories and, more recently, use court cases for clickbait online. Our ultimate goal should be to keep as many people as possible out of the criminal justice system. We must ensure that the myriad preventative programmes are well resourced. These include children and family services, youth initiatives, family resource centres, youth diversion programmes, Tusla's meitheal and child and family support networks, gambling, drug and alcohol addiction and rehabilitation services and many other vital community services.

Mental health and addiction, in particular, cause more people to be involved in the criminal justice system than any other reason. In my community, the Genesis Psychotherapy and Family Therapy Service has produced a well thought and strategic plan that would double the amount of counselling hours from 3,800 to over 7,500 at a cost of just under €500,000. To put that in context, the average cost of keeping a person in prison is €78,000 per year. The cost of keeping a young person in a secure unit is €200,000 per person per year. Let us do the mathematics and think about how we could reduce the number of victims and survivors of crimes. Consider how we could prevent so much waste of human life in the criminal justice system.

I also wish to raise the issue of community policing and community safety. In 2016, Garda Trevor Laffan, who had over 35 years of experience in community policing publicly stated:

There were always gardai who became involved in sports clubs, called into primary schools and became part of the social fabric of the community. During the late eighties there was a feeling that gardai were becoming disconnected from the general public and ‘Community Policing’ was introduced in an effort to reverse that trend.

Over the following twenty years, that’s exactly what it did. Initially, community gardai were tasked with developing Neighbourhood Watch, a crime prevention strategy, and the Garda Schools Programme. ... as time passed, community policing teams pushed the envelope and developed very successful methods of community engagement.

I am a passionate supporter of the community policing model but, unfortunately, it is being starved of resources. Recently, there was a series of attacks in Dublin 15. Thankfully, the incidence has calmed down, but there were a number of shootings in the last couple of years. I spoke to a community garda who said: "It is deeply frustrating. I cannot do my job because every time an incident happens, every time a checkpoint needs to be put up or a door-to-door knock, it could take four to five to six days. It could take weeks to get around a particular area if a car has been dumped after a shooting or a robbery". That is time which she said is being taken away from her job, the job she loves and always wanted to do, which is to work in the community.

I strongly appeal to the Government to listen to the Deputies who have spoken in this debate about community policing. They have talked about the fear in our communities and about drug gangs and criminal gangs that have taken a grip of some areas. I worked in the Coolock-Darndale area for 20 years. When I left there last year after being elected to this House, I had never seen as much fear in a community in all the years I have been working on this. We must take back control. We need to ensure that the community feels safe. We must work with the Garda, the councils and in an inter-agency way to ensure we have safe communities as we move forward. It can be done, but they need support and resources. The community deserves that.

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