Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I must not have kept a proper eye on the roster. I thought I had a few minutes left. I was still drafting important lines I wanted to include in my remarks.

This is important legislation. I take on board the point made by the previous speaker. It probably is a bit of a Groundhog Day when we have to revisit this every year. I hope that, this year, there will not be a walkout before the vote takes place. This is key legislation.

I represent Clare and live in the south of the county, only a few miles from Limerick city. I recall how gangland warfare ravaged Limerick city when I was in my late teens and early 20s. It was only the instruments that are provided for within this legislation that really took that to task. I recall a person I knew very well having a road traffic accident coming up to a roundabout in Limerick city. He or she would not even file an insurance claim because he or she was afraid of the individual who crashed into the car. That is the level of fear that was present. Kids had trouble going into school. People in every walk of life feared that if they took on certain individuals, the ramifications would be colossal. Some people, such as Roy Collins and others, paid the greatest price of all. Lives were lost in the feud and the actions that took place. This is important legislation that has brought about a feeling of safety and a sense that the Garda is in control. In this country, we have only one police force, thankfully, and only one Army. It is very important that when it comes to the safety and the policing of the State, one entity that has the power in that regard. Frustrating as it might be for the Houses of the Oireachtas to have to renew this legislation and roll it over year in, year out, it is important that is done. There should not be too much opposition to the motions. I hope there will be no walkout this year.

In the context of the justice brief, there was a report in the media at the beginning of the week that is of significant concern to us in County Clare. The county has the lowest number of Garda vehicles in the country. It is a rural county, yet along the spine of the county we have the M18 motorway and Shannon Airport. There is a lot going on in the county. All present have seen videos on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram showing cars speeding on motorways and gardaí struggling to keep up with them because their vehicles are too old. Not only have we in County Clare vehicles that cannot keep up with the pace, in some places we do not have vehicles at all. I know of a Garda station where a car occasionally has to be shared with counterparts over the border in Limerick city. That kind of practice cannot continue. If it is to truly get on top of crime in rural and urban settings, and also to properly police Shannon Airport, which is in our back yard, it is important that the Clare Garda division is appropriately resourced. Since the realigning of the Garda organisation, much of the command structure that governs County Clare and the other counties in north Munster comes from Cork. There is pressure among the higher echelons of An Garda Síochána to slim down the force to bring about efficiency. "Efficiency" seems to be the buzzword in almost all organisations these days. To the higher echelons, "efficiency" might mean a leaner organisation that functions better but, from a community point of view, it often means that Garda personnel are not available when they are needed. I am currently dealing with many issues in my constituency. There was a report on the front page of the Sunday Worldlast week in respect of feuding factions, but there are also a lot of bogus tradesmen doing the rounds in the county. There are many fly-by criminals who shoot up and down the motorway. They are not domiciled in County Clare; they take off to other parts of the country. The exits and entrances to the motorway, however, make is very easy for them to hit our county, commit a crime and get out quickly. We are going to need a fleet of Garda cars but, moreover, we will need better resourcing into counties such as Clare.

The final issue I wish to raise is that of the suspended members of An Garda Síochána in the Limerick division. That division encompasses a significant area of County Clare, including my home patch which has a population of 12,000 people. Several people have now been suspended, some of them for more than two years. An investigation is under way. This all stems back to the squaring of road traffic offences. When an individual is pulled over by a Garda car for speeding, the Garda officer has the entitlement, dating back to their training and the century for which An Garda Síochána has been in existence, to exercise discretion. The person pulled over may be going to a maternity hospital or to visit a sick relative or rushing somewhere for important reasons. It might not be ideal but if the speeding is explainable and the Garda officer decides the reason for it is plausible and legitimate, he or she can decide to square the offence and the matter will go no further. That is how it is supposed to operate - policing by consent and gardaí having authority in their community but also the respect of their community. At the moment, however, it seems a sledgehammer approach is being taken. Anyone who exercised that power of discretion in Limerick in recent years has come under a net of suspicion.

Careers have been ruined by this. Eight members have been fully suspended - with pay, may I add. They are probably at home watching "Judge Judy" this afternoon when they could be out bringing real criminals before the courts system. They are at home, being paid, when they should be on the beat. They could, at least, be put on administrative duty but that is not what has been done. Rather, they are at home and being paid for it. They did not enter the force and train up in Templemore to sit in an armchair at home when they could be out providing active service to the country. Not only were eight people suspended, up to 100 people have been brought into a net of suspicion, with mobile phones and laptops having been confiscated and personal communications between Garda officers being under investigation. That has been crippling. I do not know the rights or wrongs of the situation because I am not the investigative body. The only thing on which I am repeatedly trying to shine a light is that the matter has been before the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in recent years and it is moving very slowly, from what I can tell. It is not going anywhere significant.

I do not believe the Minister operationally has a say in this but it is her line Department. Commissioner Harris has to step up to the plate and ensure a determination is made. If people are guilty, that is fine; if they are not guilty, let them get back to work. The investigation must be moved on, however. In any other realm or walk of life, things would not take this long and people would not be strung out for this long. It has been devastating to the morale of the force. I am friends with several gardaí and there are others I know as acquaintances. Morale has never been lower. Yes, gardaí are getting new uniforms and there is policy after policy coming down from Garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park but, as a force, they feel operationally underwhelmed. Some members are miserable. This investigation and the net of suspicion hanging over people is very detrimental. Some of the gardaí tied up in that net of suspicion had only just come out of the Garda College at Templemore. One can imagine that when a Garda passes out in Templemore and takes part in the fabulous parade in the parade yard, his or her first hope is to don the stripes of An Garda Síochána, wear the blue shirt and get out on the beat. Many of them, however, were straight into an investigation. Their careers were stifled. They cannot move back to stations close to their homeplace. It has often been said that there is no smoke without fire. That might not be how the courts system operates but within An Garda Síochána a question mark hangs over these young men or women who have entered the force and it will linger until their names are cleared. For better or for worse, I ask the Minister to, please, through Commissioner Drew Harris, expedite and end this process and put these gardaí back on the street.

It is useful to quantify that. Eight gardaí in one district might not sound like a lot but I understand that currently more than 100 gardaí nationally are suspended with pay. That is not good enough for a force that is not massive to begin with. The Garda station in my locality has three gardaí, which means there are three times as many gardaí suspended in the division as there are stationed there. That quantifies how big the problem is and it acutely explains the need to expedite this matter. I thank the Acting Chairman for her forbearance.

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