Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues have stated our position. We will obviously support this. We cannot have a case where we do not facilitate court presenters. I think Deputy Kenny stated we will table an amendment. It does not make sense to us that these presenters would not be sergeants or higher, because they need to be. We need to make sure we do not end up with a novice or probationary garda in that position. I also reiterate that we need to move this on. This function should be operated by the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. That would free up gardaí to do the specific work we need them to do.

This is hardly the first time any of us have spoken about the backlog in courts, particularly in the Circuit Court and higher courts. Any sort of serious criminal activity is generally handled in them. Even when gardaí have done really decent work to deal with dangerous criminals, especially drug-dealing criminals who engage in violent activity, when action is taken, there is often a battle a day about remand, whether people are going to be released, and their specific conditions, especially if there has been violence or threats of violence. From time to time, we get satisfactory results in the sense that people are barred from certain areas or regions. That can be incredibly beneficial but it takes far too long. It could take four or five years.

On the wider issue of organised crime and drugs, as much as we welcome the increased resources for drugs squad activities, particularly in Dundalk and Drogheda, where there have been major disruptions to the drugs supply, the problem has got beyond us. We need work on the citizens' assembly and more novel ways of dealing with this. The local superintendent attended a community meeting and the drugs squad was reformed in Dundalk. There were significant results. He said at the time it could do with more numbers, whether 50 or 100 more gardaí. Then he stopped himself and said to show him anywhere where someone has actually taken on and won the war on drugs. We all accept that dangerous criminals need to be dealt with and the courts system has sufficient resources to make sure the process does not take forever, but there is wider work to do. It goes without saying we have to deal with the wider issue of poverty.

My biggest concern is we have failed to deliver the required community and family supports. Even though there is a cost to doing these, we have seen pilot projects that have worked for many years. We have a very unfortunate history in this State of operating pilot schemes and leaving them in a small number of areas and not necessarily rolling them out. Sometimes, where they are working in small areas with limited numbers, we do not expand their resources but we expand the region they have to deal with. They then have the same issue as in all other under-resourced services that are under pressure and they cannot deliver for the people.

We need a sufficient number of gardaí, resources in court and addiction services to address the drugs issue. We have work to do on diversion programmes. We are failing early on by not investing enough resources in young people, their families and the wider community so that we can get to a better place. We have a complete multi-agency response to education and health. It is also about ensuring we can bridge a gap so that marginalised people, in particular, can get employment or into further education. We have many of the correct pieces. We just have not put them and the system together.

On the matter of sergeants, I will talk about Dundalk. We have had insufficient supervision because we have not had enough sergeants. I am glad the number has been increased, but it is not enough. I am glad we now have a sergeant who has taken responsibility for community policing. I have spoken to both the new chief superintendent and superintendent about that. It is vital work. We do not have sufficient community policing and more interaction between the community policing service, the drugs squad and so on is needed. Relationships between gardaí and the communities they police are not always how they need to be. Sometimes, very good work is done, but at other times, it is not so good and they are missing vital information. One could call it intelligence. I have seen people being stopped and searched, which I have no difficulty with, but sometimes the gardaí miss that a person might not be causing any particular issue and may just be going to his or her granny's house. We know there are other more problematic cases.

It goes without saying that the more pressure can be brought to bear quickly on drugs operations, the better. I am looking for that while accepting we have more work to do. Even if we have a citizens' assembly and the perfect proposals are put together, I feel that even a 32-county Ireland is very small and we probably need to look at a solution on a European level or higher. We know the situation outside and inside every District Court. We know people who have not access to or cannot access drug addiction services are caught up in minor crime.

Some of them can be incredibly significant for those who are impacted. All it indicates to me is the failure of the system. We need to have that piece of work. We will make the attempt at local level, dealing with the Garda and other stakeholders to increase community policing and ensure it is integrated through the entire operations of the Garda as much as is possible. I get that the service is absolutely under pressure. We need to put the resources where they are needed.

As I stated earlier, we have to be able to deal with the backlog in the courts system, which causes great unease and difficulty. Even in respect of ensuring witnesses are going to provide information that is necessary, the longer the time goes on, the more room there is for things we would not like to see happen. Witnesses sometimes feel under too much pressure and step away from situations. I am thinking of a number of instances where this has happened or may happen. There is a cost to all these things. We need to ensure we can put a proper system together. That is the bit that is missing.

Sinn Féin supports the legislation. It is absolutely necessary. I hope the Government will listen to our proposed amendment in respect of sergeants. It is just sensible. We really need to get to the end of this. I have slight worries in respect of the Louth Garda division that the chief superintendent is going to be responsible for Louth and Cavan-Monaghan. It is a huge area and this may create difficulties into the future.

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