Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an píosa reachtaíochta seo. Tá roinnt gnéithe de go mbeimid ag iarraidh a leasú, go háirithe go mbeadh gá go mbeadh an garda sa chúirt ag grád an tsáirsint nó níos sinsearaí ná sin. Ach tá sé luachmhar mar phíosa reachtaíochta. It is important legislation. It is logical. It is unfortunate that we have ended up in this situation as it has tied up gardaí who might otherwise be out on the beat. The Garda court presenter is a well-established position. Typically it is the local sergeant. It is important we draw a distinction between gardaí who are called for evidence as Deputy O'Callaghan has done. That is very different animal from that of the court presenter. This legislation makes sense. It is something of an emergency situation and it is being rushed. We will support it albeit we will table amendments. The fact that court presenters currently have to be the prosecuting gardaí and that no decision other than the prosecuting garda has a right of audience as things stand means there are gardaí in the courtroom who might better be out on the street. When training gardaí, which is an expensive and time-consuming job, our focus should be as much as possible to have those skilled people out on the street deterring crime.

Unfortunately, there are a few areas in which that is being tied up. The other relates to the very slow pace of civilianisation, which needs to be expedited. I recently had a conversation with some senior gardaí in Cork. There as much as anywhere else we are not seeing enough civilians coming in. That means gardaí are not out on the street to the extent that they could be. We need to push that on because many jobs are being done by gardaí that could be done by civilian staff. That is having an impact on Garda resources on the ground.

I will again raise the fact that Garda resources in Cork seem to be the poor relation compared with some other urban centres. It has not had the same intake from Templemore as Dublin, Limerick, Drogheda or some other locations. That needs to be changed. I will instance a few areas, in particular Carrigaline, which I have raised often. Of any large town with more than 10,000 people it has the fourth lowest number of gardaí. There are only 20 gardaí, which is actually fewer than there was in March, for more than 15,000 people. The number is very likely higher after the census. That is one garda for every 800 people in the town. That just is not good enough. It is a similar story in other rapidly growing areas such as Douglas, Togher and Ballincollig. That needs to be addressed.

From a policing point of view, the Minister of State might bear in mind that Carrigaline has a huge number of young people but the Garda youth diversion project is operating from a rented premises, well supported by the community association and that is welcome. However, it will ultimately need a permanent location, its own building, for the young population that exists.

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