Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for the motion. I support the tenor of the motion, although there are one or two things it calls for which I do not agree with. I fully support what the Deputies are trying to do in putting the spotlight on the retention, recruitment, and morale problems, particularly in recognising that the morale in the force is declining and is currently at an all-time low. However, I quickly did a google search and the exact same thing was said in 2007 when Senator Michael McDowell was the Minister of Justice. At that time, we were told by the Garda sergeants and inspectors that morale was at an all-time low. That followed, of course, the Morris tribunal and the Barrett case, which I may have a chance to come back to.

I support the review that is being called for. I have a difficulty with mandatory custodial sentences. Perhaps that could be discussed in a different forum. I definitely support an increase in the number of gardaí on the beat and in pay levels, training and support; psychological and otherwise. I agree with all of these and have no difficulty with any of them.

My colleague, Deputy Noel Grealish, and I sometimes disagree but I fully agree with him on what he said regarding Galway city and county. He highlighted the figures. I sit on the joint policing committee. I would say it is for my sins, or maybe it is a privilege. I swing between the two when I sit on the committee but at least it keeps me very close to the ground and to what councillors and the man in charge of the gardaí is telling us. He tells us he has difficulty filling vacancies. Deputy Grealish outlined the numbers. I did not have the figures to hand but I had them a few weeks ago at the joint policing committee. Roles for 16 sergeants and 30 uniformed gardaí remain vacant. Maidir le Gaeilge, tá an-fhadhb acu na folúntais i gConamara agus sna ceantair Ghaeltachta a líonadh. Níl siad in ann na folúntais sin a líonadh le gardaí le Gaeilge.

Uaireanta, nuair a éiríonn leo gardaí a fháil le Gaeilge, bíonn deacrachtaí eile ann ó thaobh cúrsaí tithíochta. Ritheann cás amháin trí mo cheann anois agus mé i mbun cainte. Is duine atá i gceist atá ina bhall den Gharda Síochána. Tá bean chéile aige atá ag obair sa cheantar freisin. Tá post aige sa cheantar ach níl sé in ann cead pleanála a fháil.

Tá dhá fhadhb i gceist. Is iad sin na folúntais a líonadh agus ansin, nuair atá daoine le Gaeilge faighte acu, níl siad in ann teach a fháil sa Ghaeltacht. Tagann sé sin anuas ar an tuarascáil a scríobh an Coimisinéir Teanga ó thaobh an sárú dlí a bhí i gceist ag an nGarda maidir le gan a bheith in ann daoine le Gaeilge a sholáthar do na ceantair Ghaeltachta. Thosaigh an fiosrúchán sin, is dócha, in 2010; bhí tuarascáil; agus tá lucht bainistíochta an Gharda Síochána fós ag sárú an dlí ó thaobh soláthar gardaí do cheantair Ghaeltachta le Gaeilge.

I will not translate what I have said because I think the Minister got most of it. There is an ongoing problem in filling vacancies. When I attend the joint policing committee, the failure to fill the vacancies is highlighted over and over. People have huge concerns about the demotion of the Garda station in Salthill and the headquarters on the other side of the city in Murrough. The gardaí on the ground do too. It makes no sense to me.

I happened to be on the justice committee for a brief period when the Commissioner came before us to discuss the new regional model. All of us on that committee raised our concerns as to what would happen to community policing. We were reassured over and over that this would not be a problem and that the focus would be on it. In the Minister's speech today she talked about the new Garda community policing model. Unfortunately, that has not been seen on the ground. Perhaps she can give us a date as to when we will actually see it.

I live in two worlds, as most Deputies do: I live in a world up here and in another world in Galway city. When we sat in the convention centre for more than two years, as I walked home I saw the difficulties building up on the ground. I saw - I do not like the term "antisocial behaviour" - people misbehaving. I saw young people on bikes - "terrorising" is a bad word - but I was certainly in fear, with other people, walking up Grafton Street. Coming from the convention centre, I got a good idea of that area right up to where I was going, and those problems were building up in Dublin. In Galway, there is the exact same thing, that is, the building up of problems on the ground because of the failure to have community gardaí on the ground. The one issue on which every Deputy present is in agreement is that we want gardaí on the ground to trust and to go to.

The Minister mentioned domestic violence. I stayed on on Thursday to talk about that and I welcome what has happened. There are serious concerns as to whether the agency will be just another bureaucratic layer. The reality of what women face was brought into acute focus the next day with the murder of another woman in the midlands. There is more than one such murder a month at the moment. We need to resource and train gardaí. We brought in the protective units, which represented progress, but they need to be resourced and trained.

As regards the background to the Garda, I want gardaí on the ground. I want to be able to go up to them and to trust them. The vote of no confidence in the Commissioner I will leave between the gardaí and the Commissioner. I wish it had not come to this, ostensibly over a rota. I wish it had been sorted out. Obviously, it reflects lack of trust and low morale on the ground, which really should not be there.

As I have said previously, my introduction to the Dáil was the O'Higgins report on Garda behaviour and management as regards Sergeant McCabe. Despite the investigation and everything else, he was saved by having a recording on his phone of what was actually said. He went home rooting for that phone. Prior to that, we had the Morris tribunal. It cost us €70 million, and the price is still rising. Does the Minister know what it found? It detailed systematised corruption, negligence, misconduct and a "blue wall of silence" in County Donegal. The mistake the system made was to think that that was just Donegal when there were serious problems at management level with openness, accountability and honesty. Then it took another tribunal, the Charleton or disclosures tribunal, which is ongoing, to talk about what is necessary in the Garda: honesty, loyalty to the public, not the institution, to be seen, to be heard, and that the Garda would hear the people. We need those basic things in the Garda Síochána. That is the Garda Síochána I support. That is the Garda Síochána I want to praise: people on the ground whom one can trust. Unfortunately, there is not a history of that in the 100 years since the establishment of the Garda Síochána. Obviously, there are very good gardaí on the ground but, with the retention and recruitment problem, they are leaving in droves because of the lack of morale. That is what I would love to see us discussing here, not a vote of no confidence in a Commissioner that should never have come to this point.

There was a reference to previous Commissioners. One of them disgraced himself. It came out later through the evidence of the Comptroller and Auditor General, something whispered in his ear, which I will not repeat, about Sergeant McCabe, which was absolutely disgraceful and disgusting from the former Commissioner. I put my words in that context, and in that context I support the general tenor of the motion.

See this speech in context