Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's own backbenchers are not here. An Garda Síochána is the same. Her own constituency is the worst in the country for numbers. Will she wake up and smell the coffee? PR exercises and stunts such as walking down O'Connell Street flanked by senior gardaí are no good. It does not cut it. I salute the members of An Garda Síochána for the bravery and courage they have shown against all kinds of adversity. Now, when they need to be supported and respected, they are not getting respect from the Commissioner or from the Minister. She is out minutes after he says he is not going to resign. She is not listening to him, his is doing his own thing, and she is giving him 100% support. Will the Minister please cop on, understand what is going on and get the Commissioner in there to listen to his members. I will not go over what I said on Leaders' Questions last week when I raised this about the Commissioner going off and his Deputy Commissioners and others trying to sort it out and he comes back and tears it up. He has no experience of dealing with a force like An Garda Síochána. Obviously, I welcome a Commissioner from outside the State but we made the wrong decision and the sooner we realise that, the better. Why have we now got three more very senior officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, ex-Royal Irish Constabulary, RIC, down here? What is going on? As for respect at the moment for the GRA, it gets the support of the community because they support the community. Our community police in Tipperary, including in Clonmel and all over, do excellent work. Garda John Walsh in my own area does excellent work. However, the figures are there. The drug squad is going to be disbanded and community policing is disbanded already. It is a free-for-all for the criminals. We have to get this sorted out. I appeal to the Minister to do the right thing before it gets any worse.

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