Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this important Bill, which will streamline the process for gardaí to receive compensation when they suffer malicious injuries in the course of their duties. We all appreciate that members of An Garda Síochána have a dangerous job. We have a responsibility to ensure they are protected as much as possible while working and that they are compensated fairly when those protections fail. Under the current legislation, any garda seeking compensation for malicious injury must first approach the Minister for Justice and, if his or her approval is given, may then go to the High Court. It is an incredibly inefficient system in that respect.

It is important to note that compensation is the end result of a malicious injury. Obviously, every effort should be made to ensure protections are provided as much as possible on the job. I keep going back to the ratio of gardaí to population. As I have said before, County Meath has the worst ratio in the country, followed by County Kildare, both of which are areas that have grown in population but where services have not grown in tandem. I am aware of members of An Garda Síochána turning up to incidents on their own, which sometimes puts them in harm's way. That really must be factored into the deployment of resources, which I know is outside my remit and that of the Minister. It is wholly the responsibility of the Garda Commissioner. However, it is important to reiterate that there must be sufficient resources to ensure gardaí are protected. I am aware of gardaí who have felt at risk on occasion because of the inadequacy of the protection afforded to them, but who felt they had to respond to a call. When we are talking about compensation, we must be sure to remember the importance of trying to make sure injuries do not occur in the first place or minimising the risk of them happening.

Between legal fees and administrative costs, going to the High Court is a huge financial burden and not something any of us would relish doing. Gardaí who have been injured and the families of deceased gardaí have enough on their plate without facing that burden.

The compensation afforded by the High Court in these cases is quite inconsistent and highly dependent on the judge presiding in the case. That is unsatisfactory and it is part of the reason the Minister is bringing this Bill forward. Moving to a system where the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, will be dealing with this will go a long way towards standardising the process.

It has always struck me as strange how we separate particular categories of workers, and gardaí have been a case in point in terms of the processes afforded to them in comparison to those afforded to people who work in other sectors. Another example of this practice is the exclusion of gardaí from the Unfair Dismissals Act. It was only in 2020 that an external dispute mechanism was set up to give gardaí access to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Labour Court. Moving the system to the PIAB is another improvement and it will reduce the cost burden and the emotional energy for the person who has been injured, as well as being a saving to the State. Legal representation is optional for the PIAB, which will lower the cost on the individual. The Book of Quantum used in the PIAB will also ensure a consistency in payouts. That is quite an important element. It is important that the PIAB takes into consideration the psychological impact of the type of injury we are discussing in this legislation. There can be a major difference between somebody having an accident in the workplace and somebody being attacked. There can be psychological consequences for a person who is attacked and who has to rebuild his or her confidence. It is a fundamentally different thing. If claimants are unhappy with the outcome of their case, they can progress to the courts. However, it is to be hoped that the process will drastically reduce the number of cases that go to the courts. That is also a bonus in terms of freeing up court time.

The new process is also a much faster system. It will reduce the overall length of time it takes for members of the Garda Síochána or their families to receive compensation as a result of injury or death. The current system has done a disservice to members of the Garda Síochána and their families in this regard. The last thing one wishes to do if one has been injured at work is to go through expensive, drawn-out legal proceedings where there is an unknown quantity associated with it in terms of the compensation to which the person might be entitled. It is welcome to see trainee gardaí brought under the new scheme. It is recognition that the trainees do policing work like other gardaí. We saw that during the pandemic when the trainee gardaí were deployed across the country. They were under supervision, but they were still out carrying out patrols, at checkpoints and so forth. If anything demonstrates that they should be included, that does. There is no question that they face the same risk in the course of their duties as a fully-fledged member of the Garda Síochána. It is right that they are included.

The exclusion of the civilian staff from the scheme is baffling. It would be useful to hear the Minister's reasoning in that regard. I am aware that it was raised by other Members of the House when they spoke on the Bill yesterday and that it was also raised in the Seanad. We will probably have an increasing number of those staff who will be doing different types of work, for example, in the area of cyber crime, that is more desk-based. If somebody comes into a Garda station and there is an attack at the front counter and the person happens to be there, it is hard to see how one can differentiate and how that person would not be included. The Minister might outline what the route for the civilian staff will be. Am I missing something in that regard in that they are already provided for? It would be useful to hear the Minister's response. In the proposed policing, security and community safety Bill, the Government is proposing to bring civilian staff under the investigative remit of the body that will replace the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, with the same level of scrutiny as is given to members of the Garda Síochána. This shows that it is not just about administrative work. If the Minister is using that logic, it would be useful to understand why they are differentiated when it comes to a claim for malicious injury.

Those are the two main points I wish to make. One is the civilian staff and why there is a differentiation. The second is that I cannot reiterate enough the importance of making sure we provide a safe working environment. That safe working environment is related to the deployment of resources. I would appreciate it if the Minister could raise that yet again with the Garda Commissioner.

It will be quite interesting to see what emerges from the new census of population. I have no doubt that Meath, Kildare and, perhaps, Fingal will be leading the charge in terms of the numerical changes, if areas are going to change dramatically. I had a look at the profile of growth between 1996 and 2016 and those three areas are the areas that did the heavy lifting, with a growth rate of approximately 40% in all three. That was phenomenal. It is impossible to have that type of growth rate if the other services are not keeping pace. We are already behind by virtue of the fact that we are five years after a census of population, but there has to be some provision to ensure that areas are properly resourced and, as a consequence of that, people are kept safer in work in this type of environment.

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