Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to discuss the issue of community policing and keeping our community safe while at the same time keeping the members of the Garda Síochána safe. What we are seeing at the moment, not just in Dublin but across the country - the last speaker described the problems in his constituency - is that there is now a crisis in policing, especially community policing. I believe that if we were to properly resource and support community policing, it could be transformative.

The gap between communities and the Garda Síochána has widened. The reason for that goes back to the austerity cuts of 2010, 2011 and 2012, when Templemore was closed, education was cut and all of the funding to community groups and youth clubs was cut. We are here today and we want to know why there is a crisis in policing and why there are so many problems with attacks and gangs. It all comes down to previous Governments slashing, cutting and burning during the austerity.

It can work, however, and I want to give an example. There was a superintendent in Gurranabraher in Cork, Mick O’Loughlin. As a superintendent, he came up to my club, St. Vincent's, and once a week he would train the Féile football team. What Mick O’Loughlin did was to build up a connection with the young people of Knocknaheeny, Gurranabraher and Blarney Street and, at the same time, he got to know the young people and they got to know him. It was the embodiment of the way community policing should be run. As a result of that, he gained their trust and their respect. That is gone. Mick O'Loughlin has retired and we do not have that kind of community policing. Local gardaí on the ground tell me that the first thing to be cut when they are under pressure is community policing.

I will give an example. On Monday night, I was contacted because there was joyriding of scramblers by gangs of 40, 50 or 60 teenagers. It ended up with one person having an accident and an ambulance had to be called and gardaí had to be brought in. It went on so long because gardaí were not available. I know of people from a sporting club, including boys and girls of seven to ten years of age, who could not get home and their parents could not bring them home because they were so worried about the joyriders and the gangs. What some gardaí told me on Monday night is that they cannot cope because they do not have the staff, the gardaí on the ground or the resources. This is the second time in two weeks that a main road in Cork was blocked by gangs.

What are we supposed to do? Are we to have people who cannot bring their kids to training or who cannot go to sport because the Garda does not have the numbers? This Government has failed gardaí. Not alone is the Garda understaffed and under-resourced, but it is under-appreciated by this Government. The wages for new gardaí are so low that they cannot find anywhere to rent and they cannot get a mortgage. Something needs to be done.

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