Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The need for reform has been acknowledged for years. This was further highlighted in the Report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland published in 2021. The Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023 is a move in that direction.

This Bill was dealt with extensively in the pre-legislative scrutiny stage with many proposed reforms criticised by many stakeholders in the committee. That being said, there are many positive steps in this Bill that will bring about long overdue reform and create effective oversight and accountability for An Garda Síochána, which both gardaí and the public will welcome.

This Bill sets out to abolish local policing partnerships and introduce local community safety partnerships. These new local community safety partnerships will have more defined powers, including setting priorities locally. While this is a welcome improvement, important detail of how this will look in practice is lacking. Like everything else, the devil is in the detail and so we need to see the detail. We need to see an acceleration in the freeing up of An Garda Síochána members for administrative and office work in order that we can have more members out in the streets and engaging with the local community.

I have raised in this Chamber on many occasions the concerns of inner-city residents around street violence and other street crime, with City Quay and the Cabbage Patch being prime examples of what strong community engagement from An Garda Síochána and Dublin City Council committee can achieve. These are two positive examples in the south inner city.

Much work needs to be done and increased resources are needed. To keep up this work, however, local gardaí will need to be given proper resources. When it comes to policing our communities, we cannot allow the scenes that were witnessed at Ballyfermot to be repeated. To see gardaí surrounded and assaulted by gangs on scrambler motorcycles was chilling and stark. It is important to acknowledge the commitment and work of the gardaí who were there on site. Their professionalism is to be lauded. To be able to carry out their duties with the pressure they were under is a credit to them and the force. This animal-like behaviour by the individuals on scramblers was completely unacceptable. These individuals feel untouchable due to the Garda policy of do not engage and do not pursue. Front-line gardaí run the very real risk of being prosecuted for dangerous driving should they feel the need to pursue and engage these criminals. The policy of do not engage and do not pursue in my view and from speaking to gardaí is having a demoralising impact on rank-and-file gardaí. It is not hard to understand that when there is an incident like what happened in Ballyfermot or the many other incidents. If a garda tries to intercept a particular person on a scrambler, they will be in more trouble than the person on the scrambler. It is hugely frustrating for gardaí. Like I said, it is not hard to see why it is getting increasingly difficult to get recruits for the Garda when they feel that they are being held to account whereas the people on the scramblers are not. The policy of do not engage and do not pursue has to be changed. It was changed in London and it is it much more effective than to let these thugs on scramblers do what they want.

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