Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021. Most people will support it. I hope it will deliver more front-line policing, which everyone wants.

I wish to make a number of points. The Limerick Garda division covers the county and city of Limerick, but a considerable part of it stretches into County Clare and many of the gardaí that are stationed in Limerick live in County Clare also. One could almost call the Limerick Garda division "Salem" because a form of witch trial has been ongoing there for the past two years. Eight members have been suspended, 60 Garda phones have been confiscated and morale has never been lower. Of the eight members on suspension, some have been waiting up to two years to be interviewed by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. All of this centres around discretion. I am sure we all have a tendency every so often to go a little bit heavy on the accelerator and when we see a blue light, we pull in. In the moment a garda pulls you over, he or she has the power of discretion. That has been a feature of An Garda Síochána's approach of policing by consent and by discretion. It is taught as part of the curriculum in Templemore, going right back to the foundation of the force in 1922. Discretion is just discretion, it is not defined and therein lies the problem. What has happened in Limerick in the past two years is that gardaí are being told they were wrong to use discretion. They were suspended because they flouted the Road Traffic Act and did not implement it properly. We must move way beyond the model of squaring off a ticket for a monsignor, a politician or a county hurler. Everyone agrees that we must get beyond that, but we do not want a witch trial, which has been happening in Limerick in the past two years. We are talking about putting more gardaí on the streets, but we have taken a lot off the streets. They are sitting at home and morale is low. This has placed stress on and caused anguish for wives, husbands and children because of the shame that it carries. People have not been afforded the opportunity to clear their names.

I have gone a little bit left of centre in my contribution today. I know there is another Member for Limerick in the Chamber and perhaps he will echo some of what I said, as it is familiar to representatives in the mid-west. As stated, 80 phones have been confiscated. Many people have been brought into this net, and that is fundamentally wrong. We have always had policing by consent in Ireland. The type of policing we need is such that if there is a crime in the locality the local gardaí should be able to approach local people, as they have done for decades, glean information and use it to secure prosecutions in the courts. If we are creating bad will, which is what all of this leads to, then policing by consent no longer works.

Drew Harris is a good man, but the model of policing he is seeking to replicate is that which operates in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland. It is quite a different model. The police there drive down roads at night in armoured vehicles and are armed. It is very different to the model of policing we have in Ireland where the gardaí come into schools, are involved in local clubs, and are enmeshed in our communities.

It is a very different model. We are in a rat race and going the wrong way with all of this.

I must conclude but, in my limited time, I will make two final points. There is something wrong with the criminal law in Ireland. It is the body politic, not the current Government or the last Government. The body politic has let down the criminal law for many decades. The reality in Ireland is that if anyone creates a small misdemeanour, they are hauled in and they will be in the District Court in a few months' time. However, we have allowed a system in Ireland since the 1980s where someone can get into small drug dealing and spiral their way up to be the baron of drug dealing in all of Europe, never to be reined in. There is something wrong with the criminal law that we are not reining in these people, who start off like rats in the stairwells of flats and down alleyways, moving from small-time drug dealing to become barons in Ireland and in Europe. There is something fundamentally wrong and it is for the body politic to correct.

I will finish by saying this legislation is going to delete an implied reference to the Royal Irish Constabulary. Let us get a grip. The Garda Síochána is not a legacy force of the Royal Irish Constabulary. It boils my blood every time it is said. It is not, no more than the Irish Army is the legacy force of British forces who were here up to 99 years ago. Let us not always tip the cap like that. We have a good force and we back it with good legislation. We back our gardaí on the street but let us not always tip the cap.

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