Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For the past 18 months, my colleagues and I have been raising issues concerning the increasing levels of lawlessness and criminality in inner-city Dublin. The reason I have been raising that is that I am a TD who represents the constituency of the south-east inner city and my constituents have been raising the issue with me. Neither I nor, I am sure, any other person in this House thought we would be standing here, however, speaking in response to the stabbing of schoolchildren in the inner city. There are many reasons for criminal activity, but there must be a strong policing response to it. In this House we are very good at describing problems. I will put forward some solutions to which I think the Minister should give consideration in her response to this ongoing serious political problem.

First, we need to openly admit as a Government that we are finding it extremely difficult to recruit people into An Garda Síochána. Back in 2008, which is 15 years ago, we had 14,200 members in the force. Today we have 13,900, although our population has grown by over half a million. We need to accept, therefore, that we are finding it difficult to recruit, and we need to be innovative in trying to increase the recruitment campaign. I welcome the fact that the Minister has changed the age policy. We may need to start looking at the terms and conditions of recruiting new officers in order to attract them into the force.

A second thing we need to reflect on, and this is one of the things about last Thursday night that surprised me, is that the individuals who were brutally attacking members of An Garda Síochána did not seem to be afraid of them. They did not seem to have any sense of fear in trying to harass members of the force. We need to emphasise too and remind members of An Garda Síochána that they have an entitlement to use reasonable force in order to oppose violence and riotous behaviour. Not only do they have an entitlement to use reasonable force, but they have an obligation to use reasonable force. We also need to reflect on the fact that over recent years gardaí may have become nervous about using the reasonable force they are entitled to use because of the reaction they may expect from this House or from outside the House and in the media.

The Minister needs to look again at the legislation which is before the Seanad at present in respect of the establishment of the new statutory body to replace GSOC. If a person wants to make a complaint against a member of An Garda Síochána, he or she should make that complaint within one month. Under the Bill which is going through the Houses of the Oireachtas, we are giving people a full year to make a complaint. Obviously, their entitlement to issue proceedings is not affected, but they should certainly make the complaint within one month.

The political motivation behind violence is irrelevant. One thing of which we in this country should be absolutely certain is that you cannot use violence to advance your political objective, irrespective of what that objective is.

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