Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Bill is largely welcome. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland did incredible work in outlining the steps which are necessary to bring about essential policing reform, thereby enhancing public support and confidence in the Garda in the process. The Bill goes a long way to giving effect to some of the recommendations the commission made concerning governance, oversight and accountability mechanisms for the Garda. However, in several ways, it falls significantly short of the mark. This is incredibly important legislation, reforming the entire civilian oversight structure for the Garda and national security, and it is essential that we do this right and do not rush it. I was somewhat surprised to see the Bill come through this early in the term as I was under the impression that the Department was waiting for the high-level group on the role of the Garda Síochána in the public prosecution system to submit its final report, and the Minister of State might outline in his response when that will be.

The commission was very clear in its recommendation that prosecutorial powers should be removed from gardaí. International best practice is for more distance to be placed between police and the courts for both ethics and human rights standards to be protected and met. This is an essential reform which is completely absent from the Bill whereas it is a reform the Government has agreed to in principle and the Garda itself has agreed to. Gardaí who are put into the District Court to prosecute cases are not trained to the level of defence lawyers and this also ties up gardaí in court when they are sorely needed for actual police work, as we all see in our constituencies daily, certainly in my constituency of Dublin Central. The last update I saw from the Minister, Deputy McEntee, was that the high-level group was expected to submit its final report on prosecutorial powers last summer and, obviously, that never materialised. Can the Minister of State outline when he expects that work to be completed, if the Government is committed to introducing this vital reform and, if so, why this Bill is proceeding without such an important aspect?

It is not just policy that needs to be fully thrashed out if the Government is committed to this reform, but there also needs to be a big expansion of the Director of Public Prosecutions in terms of funding, staffing and expertise. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland was very clear in its recommendations on the various policing oversight bodies in that there was too much confusion, too much overlap and not enough independence. Under this Bill, the oversight structure will change significantly with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, expanding to become the office of the police ombudsman, the Policing Authority and the Garda Inspectorate merging into the policing and community safety authority, and the introduction of a new independent examiner for national security legislation.

Broadly, these reforms are welcome and there is significant progress being made on a number of fronts, but there are improvements which need to be made in order to really ensure the independence of these bodies. Independence is the foundation for any sort of oversight body, especially an ombudsman, but when that independence is weakened, the whole organisation fails. The Bill, as currently drafted, falls short of independence. GSOC has raised significant concerns about the lack of institutional independence for the new office of the police ombudsman. In several areas of its functioning, the Bill imposes a level of involvement from the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner which is completely inconsistent with the Venice principles and the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. Requiring ministerial consent for operational matters flies in the face of the autonomy of the ombudsman, the Minister should not need to be told anything, and to have the ombudsman needing to ask the Garda Commissioner for advance permission to search a Garda premises is a farce. The Garda Commissioner is not independent. He is the effective CEO of the Garda Síochána and the ombudsman should not need permission from the body it is overseeing to do its job.

Many concerns were raised on this during pre-legislative scrutiny in regard to how these processes for asking permission will interfere with the speed and efficiency of the ombudsman, as well as compromising the integrity of investigations. After pre-legislative scrutiny, the Government added an obligation for the ombudsman to get a warrant from the District Court in order to search a police premises, in addition to the requirement to consult the Commissioner. The requirement to get a warrant from the District Court should be sufficient on its own and the obligation to consult the Commissioner needs to be removed from the Bill, a point I would argue strongly.

The Bill also adds a statutory obligation for the new ombudsman to complete business in a timely manner. It is essential that people see justice done and progress made on any complaints they bring forward. The time taken to process GSOC complaints has been the subject of a lot of debate over the last few years but I think this section of the Bill misses the core issue at hand. By putting the statutory obligation to be timely on only one party, the ombudsman, it is very much framing the issue as if it is GSOC which has been dragging its heels on purpose with regard to investigations. It is often down to lack of resourcing, a lack of compliance from complainants and, unfortunately, the Garda failing to comply with investigations in a timely manner. If there is going to be a statutory duty on the ombudsman to process complaints in a timely fashion, there must be a corresponding duty for the Garda to co-operate in a timely manner. GSOC has been very clear that the proposed expansion of its functions will require a significant increase in resources, personnel and expertise. I hope the Government will be forthcoming in providing GSOC, the Policing Authority and the Garda Inspectorate with all the resources they need to ensure the transition into new bodies goes smoothly.

In the time I have left, I want to talk about some other aspects.

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