Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her detailed opening remarks on this technical Bill, which will impact on a series of legislative measures, many of them dating back to well before the formation of the State, particularly in respect of Garda districts, which will now become part of Garda divisions. All of this is coming from the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland's recommendations on modernising the force and making it more nimble and better able to cope with the demands of modern policing and criminal justice. We will support the Bill. This is not to say that there are not elements that we believe need to be examined more closely, probably on Committee Stage when we see what amendments need to be made.

There are some concerns, of which I am sure the Minister is aware, that the new model will take time to bed in. For members of the Garda, it will take time to adjust to this new set-up. Superintendents will not have geographical areas to look after. Instead, they will have particular sets of duties. It will be like a division of job descriptions rather than territories. There is some merit in that. It has been found in modern organisations that managements work better when they are in such set-ups as opposed to how roles were traditionally divided up in the Garda Síochána.

Much of how progress under this legislation and its outworkings is judged will depend on results on the ground, for example, whether communities feel safer, get better responses and see that the Garda is more reactive and performing better. That is what we all want to happen, but much of it will require more resources and a greater emphasis on community policing in particular. One of the roles of one superintendent in each division will relate to community policing. It is the view of all the people we speak to, be they representatives of victims of crime or of various organisations that deal with people who have been involved in crime in the past and are now trying to get back on a better track in life, that, at the end of the day, it comes down to having the police officer in the community who knows and works with the people and is a part of that community. In fairness, the Minister comes from a rural district and understands how important it is for the community to feel a connection with the police. I am afraid that is not the case in many rural areas at the moment, though. There is a sense of disjointedness and of local gardaí not being as connected as they were in the past but, I hope, will be again in future.

We must ensure that there are units in each area that are concerned with connecting and dealing with people. At a committee hearing, the Commissioner stated that every garda was a community garda. That may be true to an extent, but it does not stand up completely when one thinks about it. In most cases, gardaí are divided into units of expertise, for example, drugs squads, serious crime units and roads policing. Each of them may have an element of dealing with and being part of the community, but if we are to crack the problem we have in many areas and relieve communities that have been blighted by serious crime, we will have to get gardaí on the ground who are part of those communities and designated as community police. I welcome the part of this Bill that will try to make that happen.

The performance assurance element is one of the measures that many would see as a step in the right direction. There has been poor accountability previously. This is not to be critical of anyone in particular, but the system has not delivered the kind of accountability that we would like to see. There are many high-profile examples of this. There are people who come to my office - I am sure people regularly go to the offices of other Deputies - who have had negative experiences that have been magnified by a sense of non-engagement and of no one being held to account, and a feeling that they were talking into a dark cavern that was not whispering anything back. Performance assurance will form part of one of the roles of a superintendent in each division. It may be a way in which this part of the problem can be resolved.

Issues will be different in each area. Many areas, particularly built-up urban ones, have serious problems with drug gangs and the criminality that surrounds all of that. It is a plague on those communities and additional resources need to be invested to deal with it. Every effort needs to be made to ensure that we not only have gardaí on the street and part of the community, but that we also have specialised units that target where those drug gangs are operating and what they are doing to destroy communities. These gangs are not just in built-up urban areas. We might think of Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk and the like that have clear problems, but these problems arise across the State. There are so-called wannabe gangsters in every small community in the country. We must recognise this and deal with it. Even in the very rural area that I come from, I hear about issues on the grapevine. I speak to local gardaí regularly about all of these issues. They are aware of them and there is a sense that they want to intervene and do something at times, but they sometimes do not have the resources to sit on top of and emphasise the small groups of people on whom they must mount constant surveillance in order to close them down. If additional resources are required in that regard, then I hope the savings that will be made through the new model can be invested in those resources and in delivering real change on the ground.

We all support the civilianisation of the Garda Síochána, which sees civilians doing a large amount of the back office work that does not require a garda. This civilianisation is worthy and a great deal of work is being done in that regard.

However, it is something we all need to consider. I do not think it is any harm that when people attend a Garda station to have a passport signed, make an inquiry or whatever, they meet and deal with a member of An Garda Síochána in that regard because it means they become used to meeting and dealing with gardaí and understand that they are not a group of people that are outside of society or separate from them. It is important to ensure that it remains the case that people can have that type of interaction on an ongoing basis.

As we move forward, we have a great deal of work to do in specific areas. I often hear that crime is a problem in some areas. It is a problem in many areas, but it is not a problem everywhere. In general, we have a society that is obedient of the law. People do their best. That needs to be recognised. At the same time, where the big problems exist, they need to be dealt with and that will require additional resources as well as reorganisation.

I look forward to working on the Bill on Committee Stage and to its eventual enactment. As I said, because it is so technical in nature, there are some aspects that may need to be reviewed and amended.

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