Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a thabhairt don Ghrúpa Réigiúnach. I thank the Minister for taking the questions. This is a timely motion. Sinn Féin representatives have raised matter in here repeatedly over the last year. I welcome the Minster's commitment to community policing and her comments on that. The community gardaí cannot be underestimated. The work they do in giving a sense of security in the community, particularly for older people when they see them around, is very important. Sometimes I think they are not appreciated even within the Garda. The community gardaí are the first people to be cut in communities when there is a shortage. I have had people in Killarney telling me there was a meeting organised and the garda was not available because the post had been removed. I welcome the Minister's commitment to that. I also want to compliment the Minister on the work she has done in respect of domestic violence over the past year or two. We were in the committee yesterday and the progress that has been made over the last two years is well done.

On the motion, one note of caution I would sound relates to the wording around an increase in crime. While there have been large increases in figures between quarter 2 of last year and the same period this year, they really show more consistency with pre-Covid numbers from 2019. The robberies, extortions, thefts and homicides are indeed up year on year but these offences are aligning closer to pre-pandemic levels. They are coming back to where they were. This comes against the background of increasingly difficult conditions for the Garda and long waits for court cases. There have been difficulties over the past three years. There is a huge increase in the number of prisoners in custody on remand for over one year. I think it has gone from about 4% to 12%. There are delays in the courts. The law term commenced yesterday. Maybe we should be making some progress on bringing the law term back to mid-September so that the backlog can be cleared.

One other note of caution in respect of the motion, while we are broadly supportive of it, is in respect of mandatory custodial sentences. The sentences are there already. I am not a great believer in mandatory sentences across the board. Some of them are unconstitutional, clearly. While it is easy to say, it is much more difficult to implement. Recruitment and retention of gardaí must be prioritised. We are awaiting the publication of the Garda Reserve regulations. We raised this during a recent meeting with Garda management and were advised that they are due very soon. We were told it would be in quarter 4 and we are just into quarter 4 now. The Minister said herself that it would be soon. All over the country but particularly in Dublin, people are waiting. The demand from Kerry to Louth to Donegal is to have more presence on the streets. It is very important that these regulations are published as soon as possible in order that the Garda can go and recruit reserves to keep the presence on the street that is demanded in the communities.

On the withdrawal of voluntary overtime, I have heard some alarming stories from front-line gardaí. I do not want to go into too many details but the practice of having to move various rank-and-file gardaí around who are already in place, due to the shortages, has left some gaps. They must be plugged as soon as possible. It must be borne in mind that voluntary overtime was papering over previous cracks. Gardaí withdrawing their support for this is merely a preview of what may result if the crisis is not resolved. One sergeant told a colleague of mine after increases to overtime to combat the issues we saw in Dublin city centre over the summer that overtime funding is not the problem, it is finding people to do it. Many units from the periphery of Dublin city centre are already at half the numbers they had pre-Covid. Taking them into the city centre is just causing stress and strain.

The current dispute over rostering is a consequence of the decline in numbers. The stress and strain placed on members has no doubt contributed to diminishing morale within An Garda Síochána. That level of frustration has led to the extraordinary motion which was put by the Garda Representative Association recently. Important reforms and improvements are difficult to implement in this context and recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, such as moving gardaí away from non-core duties, coroners' courts, court presenting and prisoner escorts, must be placed back on track as soon as possible. It is worth going through a few figures on Garda recruitment. The strength has declined and the three years could lead to a dip. I will pass over to my colleague because she is getting anxious.

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