Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The complaints body of An Garda Síochána, GSOC, will be renamed the office of the policing ombudsman, with redesigned processes and greater financial independence. The body itself will be restructured and the current three-person commission will be replaced with an ombudsman and a deputy ombudsman. Glossy Bills are not going to fix the serious problem we have in this country. Ar an gcéad dul síos ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil do na ghardaí go léir. I want to thank the vast majority of the members of the Garda Síochána. There is a very fine line between the wrong people and anarchy. We saw what happened last night in Omagh, and we must condemn that out of hand, a sordid attack.

Our Garda Síochána have been welcomed, but they have not been supported by successive Governments. The Bill is all fine and dandy. It contains lovely flowery language. The Minister probably got consultants to design it, write it up and everything else. We are told that the Bill will establish an office of an independent examiner of national security modelled somewhat on the UK equivalent with extensive oversight and adjudicative powers. I do not have any faith whatsoever in it. We have had systems. We have had An Garda Síochána which has served us well.

We have at the moment a community policing structure. I will be attending a meeting of Tipperary JPC committee tomorrow morning. What does the Government do to us? It sends our chief superintendent to County Limerick and go dtí an Clár, in Ennis, no disrespect to an Teachta McNamara. He is probably two and a half hours away from most parts of Tipperary. We always had a chief superintendent in Tipperary. It is this new grandiose plan again, which is a disaster. We are so scarce in gardaí in Tipperary it is not funny any more. I would not want to be saying it here a lot of the time because we would be telling the wrong people and they would find out. Take Carrick-on-Suir, which is located in Clonmel district. There are three rosters operating since Covid, which the gardaí will tell us has been a successful roster. There are thoughts of putting it back up to four. As it stands with three, they do not have enough members in Carrick-on-Suir, which is a 24-hour Garda station, to fill one roster. I pay tribute to Garda Pat Kelly, who retired recently. That is an alarming situation in a town that has plenty of problems and, never mind the town, the district covers a huge geographical area as well.

We can have all the purpose of this Bill, to strengthen the governance of An Garda Síochána including through the creation of a non-executive board of An Garda Síochána. I will put the paper away because I will get annoyed reading it. I know it is all lovely, designed like the super plans the Government has for different building developments. It is not worth the paper it is written on because it is not going to happen. What we needs are boots on the ground and support for them. Where there are wrong boots on the ground that are offensive and do things wrong, they need to be weeded out and they are there as well. They are a tiny minority but they are pernicious. Look at Limerick, where we have allegations against gardaí who have been suspended from duty for so many years. It is totally unfair to them and their families. Either they should be brought to court or let back working. They are being paid at home because they have allegations against them, which is enough of a suffering for them. It must be dealt with and not pushed under the carpet, going on and on, back and forward, hither, thither and nowhere.

I have experience of GSOC and its forerunners, and I have little faith in them. I was contacted by a constituent who made a complaint about intimidation from a member of An Garda Síochána 13 months ago. His complaint is still languishing there 13 months later. There was a superintendent appointed to investigate it and the member the complaint was made about objected and said he was acquainted with some of the people. That is no excuse for it not to be dealt with. There were two young men who lost their lives off Helvick Head 13 or 14 years ago. The Garda investigation, it was with the Marine Casualty Board, who were unfit and unable, had no investigative powers really and did not do it. The Garda Síochána stood idly by. We had more meetings with the Garda Síochána in Dungarvan, and with chief superintendents and assistant commissioners, all for nothing and the families are waiting for answers. It is going on that length of time now and no answers. The anguish and the suffering, no closure. How long is a piece of string? That is what has happened them. They have been left languishing there. I salute Anne-Marie O'Brien and her family for persisting with this case. There are hundreds of other cases like it.

It is a pity the Minister, Deputy Harris has gone because I was going to ask him to meet with a family from his own constituency, the Temple family. Lisa Temple and her daughters were mercilessly dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night by a large number of men a year ago under cover of darkness. There were two gardaí sitting in a patrol car outside who refused to help. They were supervising the visit. Something similar happened out in Balbriggan as well. There have been other evictions and other horrible takeovers and repossessions where the Garda should not be there at all. They are a peacekeeping force and should not be aiding and abetting bailiffs and marauding gangsters who are acting as security men with no proper security, nothing short of thuggery being carried out. We need that weeded out completely. In the Balbriggan case, those involved parked all their vehicles in the local Garda station. Just imagine. In the Temple case they refused to intervene. I want the Minister for Justice to examine that case and root out the wrong. A small number of gardaí are doing so much damage to the reputation of the force. It is not funny; it is quite shocking. All these glossy Bills and proposals are useless.

Australian police commissioners advertised in recent times for Irish members of An Garda Síochána and equivalent members in England to join the forces out there. Most of our gardaí have degrees. The Australian authorities got 800 applications in 24 hours. Does that not tell us something? We are standing up here the past three or four years telling the Taoiseach and the Ministers that there is something wrong and that gardaí are exiting the force. They are beaten, battered, bruised and intimidated. I refer to the good gardaí. The wrong ones I have no truck with. They should be rooted out because they are only tarnishing the name of the force. They should not be supported. There are excellent gardaí in Tipperary. In Cahir, we have an excellent community team of Jenny Gough, Judy Davern and Philip O'Sullivan. They held a fabulous community event in Cathair an Iascaigh three weeks ago tonight and brought in 250 people. This was the 24th year of it. They are excellent people who do tremendous work.

That night was worth its weight in gold ten times over, but we do not have the numbers. Garda John Walsh is replacing the late, great Sergeant Niall O'Halloran, who served us so well. He succumbed to cancer and lost his life at a young age. People such as Garda Walsh are doing well but have no backup or support and are isolated. Recently at the Moyle Rovers premises in Clonmel, Tipperary, people stated marauding gangs were terrorising them. There may be but one bean garda or male garda driving a squad car down a road at 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock the morning. The criminals know well what is going on. There is no one there; there is no one in the station, and people are waiting for calls. People are trying to get passports verified and losing out on their hard-earned holidays because there is no one to answer the phone in a 24-hour Garda station. The passport officers ring three times. We need root-and-branch reform and to support the gardaí, not tie them down with red tape. We need to let them out on the beat.

There is something in my notes about establishing the secretarial side and not having gardaí doing that kind of work. I welcome that also because we need boots on the ground. I do not know how many recruits are in Templemore at the moment. There are very few, a fraction of the number who should be there. Every time we ask a question here, we are told how many are in the force, but they are leaving with injuries and stress and are retiring early. A female garda who came to Clonmel some years ago was a top achiever but she ran out of the force. I understand she made allegations of bullying and other issues but she left the force. Imagine losing members with her potential. They have degrees. When they have degrees, they climb the ladder pretty fast, which is good, but it leaves the squad cars with one member in them. It leaves Garda stations with one member or no member. The Government tells me the vagabonds, rogues and villains do not know this. Of course they do. I totally condemn what happened in Finglas and other areas. There are many such areas.

The North Face shop on Grafton Street, just over the road, has been burgled four times in the past three months. It is shocking. In Dublin, we do not have the numbers to deal with this. Anyone can see any night of the week what is going on in our city and town centres and the lack of respect. Housing, mental health and all the other issues are not being dealt with either, so we are aiming for a perfect storm. We are in the teeth of it and will be unless the Government does something about it, not pile platitudes, and gets the Commissioner to acknowledge that his members are not being properly and safely supported. I put this to the Garda in Thurles three years ago and I was treated with disdain by the present Commissioner. Gardaí are unsafe on their own in squad cars and Garda stations. I know of a case in which a garda was told to stay in the Garda station, lock the door and just answer the phone instead of going out on the street on her own. There were no members to go with her. Gardaí are held up with court cases and everything else.

The Prison Service leaves an awful lot to be desired. There is significant blackguarding and skulduggery going on in sections of the Prison Service and a blind eye is turned to it. The intimidation of good prison officers by rogues and mobs is rotten, especially within Limerick Prison. It is disgraceful. People's lives are being destroyed and wrecked and we turn a blind eye to it.

We opt for certain investigation channels but the fox is investigating himself. The fox is minding the chickens here. We need proper people with teeth to have proper investigations and support their gardaí.

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