Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right that this is not a panacea. This will not deal with or respond to all incidents. We need to try to support the Garda. Going back to our conversation last night, it is about making sure the Garda has the necessary resources, numbers and technology, particularly making sure gardaí have body-worn cameras. It has been shown in other jurisdictions where they have been introduced that they benefit the police when they arrive on the scene of an incident or crime in obtaining the first pieces of evidence or information and in protecting them. If people know they are being recorded, it modifies their behaviour. As the Deputy has just mentioned, we often see incidents put up on social media. The perpetrators put up what they want to show. What is important is that gardaí have the evidence and ability to record their version of events. People will be aware of the technology of the Garda and will know it has it. It will be able to go back 15 seconds to record an incident that might have happened to get the full picture to so as to protect gardaí. In other jurisdictions, people's behaviour has been modified because of this. This in itself will not change certain people's behaviour. That is where we hope the rest of the work under way, particularly with regard to younger people, will be effective. There has been a change in attitude towards An Garda Síochána. The level of respect has perhaps declined. I will not say there was fear but people respected a garda walking past them or a garda who issued a direction or questioned them. This is not always the case now. It is about engaging with younger people and making sure we invest in our youth justice strategy and divergent programme. It is about making sure we have gardaí on the beat in our communities and engaging with people so they become known to them and are part of the community. There are many ways in which we can address this. Body-worn cameras are really important in addressing what the Deputy mentioned, namely assaults and attacks on gardaí. The next Bill we will debate will progress this, and I hope we will have body cameras on gardaí as quickly as possible.

See this speech in context