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

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "acknowledges that:

— it is over 100 years since the foundation of An Garda Síochána;

— the mission of An Garda Síochána is 'Keeping People Safe';

— An Garda Síochána play a crucial role in our communities, building stronger, safer communities, maintaining law and order, upholding the principles of justice and fostering community well-being;

— through the promotion of crime prevention and visible policing, the Gardaí foster a sense of security, especially among the most vulnerable in our communities;

— our communities rely on the Gardaí to respond to emergency calls, patrol our neighbourhoods, prevent and investigate crimes;

— the dedication, professionalism, and commitment of the Gardaí to serving the community is invaluable in creating a safe and secure environment for all and deterring criminal activities; and

— to carry out their mission, the Government has ensured in successive Budgets that An Garda Síochána have the resources and leadership to do so;

recognises:

— that following the forced closure of the Garda College during the Covid-19 pandemic, Garda recruitment is now accelerating with each new class group entering the Templemore campus;

— that 100 new Gardaí have attested so far this year, and that another 470 are in active training, with two more classes due into Templemore in October and December;

— the progress being made towards reaching the Government's target of 15,000 members of An Garda Síochána and 4,000 civilian Garda staff;

— the major increase in investment in annual funding through Budget 2023, which provided a total allocation of €2.4 billion, an increase of €340 million in annual funding;

— the new Garda Reserve campaign which will be launched soon, to further support increased policing visibility in our communities;

— the roll-out of Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSP) and the implementation of the Rural Safety Plan;

— the implementation by An Garda Síochána of the new Community Policing Model;

— that the introduction of Community Policing Areas (CPAs), which will be created nationwide with a dedicated Community Garda given responsibility for each new CPA, will improve Garda visibility;

— the recent legislative changes to provide access to Garda members to the industrial relations machinery of the State, including the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court; and

— legislation brought forward before the summer recess to increase the maximum sentence for assaulting a member of An Garda Síochána and other emergency workers, from seven to 12 years; and

calls on the Government to:

— continue to support the work being done by An Garda Síochána with international partners to deal with organised crime gangs and the related issue of drugs in our communities;

— bring forward the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023, currently before the Houses, which will introduce a new framework for policing, security and community safety in Ireland as recommended by the Commission on the Future of Policing;

— continue to provide supports and initiatives to strengthen wellbeing and job satisfaction of the members and staff of An Garda Síochána; and

— bring forward the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022, to allow for the use of bodycams which will support Gardaí in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.".

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and colleagues for raising what I know is a very important matter to all of us here. I also thank her for giving me the opportunity to outline how I believe we are making progress when it comes to building stronger and safer communities. As Minister, I am determined to keep people safe. That has always been front and centre of everything I do and I assure the House that I am not distracted in any way from that task but there are challenges and there always will be challenges; of that I have no doubt. There is always more we can do. Our communities want more gardaí, as do I. We all agree that we want the same thing.

Investment in An Garda Síochána across the justice sector is increasing and is at the highest level it has ever been. Budget 2023 brought An Garda Síochána’s total allocation to €2.14 billion, which was an increase in €340 million in annual funding just in the past three years alone. This is supporting An Garda Síochána in the excellent work it is doing in many areas.

First, on gangland crime, we have seen very significant changes and work being done on the ground. There is ongoing success in seizing drugs being smuggled into our country and we know that last week we had the largest ever seizure, led by An Garda Síochána. We are building international coalitions to tackle these organised crime gangs which operate with little respect for borders, which is as little as the respect they have for people. Gangland murders are falling dramatically.

This means, unfortunately, that we have seen an increase in homicides and these killings are driven largely by domestic abuse. This is a matter we have to address and we are addressing and we are making progress in tackling this heinous epidemic through our zero tolerance plan. We have introduced tougher laws and stronger sentences and we are developing new refuges and accommodation. We are building long-term structures to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Most importantly, we are seeking to challenge and change the attitudes which underpin it and to help victims. We have just advertised for the position of the CEO for a new domestic violence agency and that will be up and running early in the new year. This is to ensure that we have structures in place so that no matter who the Minister is or no matter who is in government, no matter which of us are serving in the Oireachtas, that this will be long-term reform to tackle what is a very deep-rooted problem within our society.

Nobody knows better than the local community what needs to be done to improve community safety, whether it is Navan, Galway or any of the towns or villages we represent . Community safety partnerships are the way in which we will respond to that. They acknowledge that increasing community safety is not just the responsibility of An Garda Síochána and we all acknowledge that too much has fallen on its members' shoulders for many years now. It requires many State agencies, organisations and elected representatives to come together, whether that is Tusla, local businesses, education providers, enterprise workers, youth services working together with local communities, elected representatives, and bringing everyone around the table. This is about identifying what the issues are within each county and community and drawing up individual plans. From next year, every area will have a community safety partnership to draw up its own community safety plan. Ahead of the national roll-out, we have rolled out three pilot areas. We have the Dublin north inner city, Longford, and Waterford, to ensure that we have geographical and regional spread and we are also looking at different sizes of counties.

When I commenced the community safety partnership pilots, the goal was very simple. We want to empower communities to have a say in community safety. The Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Plan, which was published just this month, is a perfect example of this fresh approach. If one looks at some of the actions which it published in this, which are already being worked on and funded in certain ways, there are recommendations around Garda presence, enhanced youth services, businesses taking initiatives such as the new community safety wardens, local authorities also playing their part, and the simple things like street lighting, cleaning, shop fronts and all of these issues being addressed as part of one plan being rolled out collectively. It will not be perfect but, again, this is a long-term plan which is often trying to deal with deep-rooted problems.

Along with the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, I am fully committed to further extending our network of youth diversion programmes. This is of great importance when we talk about dealing with antisocial behaviour and issues which are happening across the country. These programmes represent work of great value and work under the Youth Justice Strategy 2021 - 2027 and funding for this alone has increased by 67% just in the past three years. Some €30 million is supporting these projects, which means that by the end of this year every single part of the country will have cover. We are now trying to ensure that there is weekend cover but that we also support the hard-to-reach children and even children who are younger than we are dealing with now. It is unfortunately a fact that we need to be engaging and creating diversion programmes for much younger people. This autumn, in fact today, I will be in the Seanad progressing the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023. This legislation is what underpins the partnerships nationally but a physical presence is, of course, central to community safety also.

As I said at the outset, I want more gardaí, as we all do. It is an unfortunate fact, however, that we had to close the Garda College when Covid-19 was here. People may like to ignore that fact and to say that in the past three years numbers have dropped but the college was closed and with no college we could not produce Garda recruits. My party was proud to reopen the college previously when it had closed and we are now building a momentum in recruitment. Almost 500 people completed or began training last year. After the Covid-19 enforced pause, members in Templemore continue to increase. We have attestations every three months. Some 135 was the intake in February, 154 in May and 174 for last July. We will have another number starting again in the college in October. When we look at the overall number for this year, we will have 100 new Garda members attested, 470 will be in active training, and then two more classes are due in Templemore in October and December.

Numbers are stabilising. We knew they would drop lower than we would like but they are stabilising and I have every confidence that they will also start to increase. As Deputies have alluded to, plans are in train to allow for a new recruitment campaign for the Garda Reserve which will in turn help increase visibility and will support gardaí in the work they are doing on the ground. We are examining all options and I assure the House with regard to recruitment and retention. That means increasing the entry age at which members can join and I hope to be able to make a decision on that very shortly with the Garda Commissioner. We are engaging with regard to the retirement age but we are also looking at other measures. Obviously, we have budget discussions which are ongoing at the moment and that will be made clear next week.

On the structure itself, Members have alluded to the fact that there has been a great deal of reform happening at the moment. There has been a great number of changes and I am first to acknowledge that many changes have come in a very short space of time. That is not easy and in itself puts pressure on members. I thank members of An Garda Síochána for the way in which they have responded and are implementing this reform. They also give feedback and I have to stress that there is a continuous engagement from senior management with members to understand how these changes can be adapted and amended, and how they can work better. Whether it is the operating model or the new online systems, changes have taken place. I appreciate more might be needed and I have no doubt that where that is required, that changes will continue to take place.

On the operating model, one of the main benefits of this new model is that it will put in place community policing teams right across the country. We all agree and every person wants to know who the local community garda is so that they can pick up the phone, they have their number and that they are able to deal with them whether it is antisocial behaviour, crime prevention, community safety or whatever matter. People have different reasons for wanting to contact a garda. Each community garda will have responsibility to be highly visible, to be active, to engage with local businesses and communities and to also deal with local groups, and these will be at the front line of a reformed service which has community policing at its core.

On this point, I would also say, as I know that there has been a great deal of feedback saying that this new structure is not working, that reform and change takes time, particularly when one has a global pandemic in the middle of it. That, in turn, affects numbers. Many of the members of An Garda I speak to, when one talks to them individually and asks if we had more gardaí and the numbers we thought we would have prior to Covid-19 if the model would work better, many of them say Yes. We need to ensure that we continue to listen, to adapt and change where change needs to happen, but that we continue to recruit as quickly as we can. There is a great number of people who very much want to join An Garda Síochána despite, perhaps, the view that that is not the case. It is absolutely the case that there are thousands still applying for the recruitment campaigns and we will hold another recruitment campaign early in the new year.

On the welfare of Garda members, which Members have also mentioned, this is something I take very seriously in every meeting I have with any of the representative organisations. This is something they raise and I speak to them about with regard to what more I can do and what funding I can provide to ensure that the supports and the resources are there for them because Deputy Berry is right in that they deal with horrific situations and have to respond to very difficult scenarios. It is important we put measures in place to support them and that is why we enacted legislation before the summer to increase the maximum sentence for someone who has assaulted a member of An Garda Síochána.

That is why we are bringing in body-worn cameras. I am pleased that legislation is passing through the Seanad at the moment to make sure they are provided and afforded with the same protections when they go about their work. That Bill will also allow for further community CCTV which assists them in doing their work. It also makes sure we have funding for things such as the keeping our people supported, KOPS, resource, an online app that supports them directly, that we support their health, well-being and wellness and access to support, wellness days and that we do even more. That is an absolute priority for me at all times.

Briefly on the roster, I absolutely appreciate it is important for members, for their work-life balance and for the same reason that our work is important to us and the way in which we balance it with our family and social lives. However, it is also important that the Commissioner is able to put in place a roster that fits the needs of the people of the day. This will only be resolved by people talking and by sitting down around the table. I know I am saying that consistently but that is how this kind of scenario gets resolved. Further meetings are happening today and tomorrow between the Commissioner and the four associations. I have no doubt but that there will be a solution and a resolution found to what is a really important issue for everyone involved.

I thank the Members for putting down this motion. It is really important that we continue to invest in An Garda Síochána and to support them because gardaí have an extremely difficult job and I think we all want to support them in whatever way we can.

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