Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá áthas orm go bhfuil deis agam labhairt sa Dáil inniu faoi shábháilteacht pobail agus ár gcóras ceartais. Ní mór dúinn dul i ngleic go práinneach leis an easpa gardaí ar ár sráideanna. Communities deserve to feel safe and protected. Our cities, towns and rural communities should be safe, day and night. When crimes are committed, victims of crime must be supported to get justice in a timely manner. There must be equal access to justice for all. Every community has an equal right to proper policing. There are many issues which the Minister for Justice must deal with as a matter of urgency and I want to address some of them.

There is a clear and ongoing issue regarding Garda numbers and Garda visibility. When Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael took office in June 2020, Garda numbers stood at 14,700. At the end of December 2024, the Garda strength was 14,191, a drop of 3.5% over that period. In the same period, the population of the State rose from 4.95 million to 5.38 million, an increase of 9%. The lack of gardaí and the lack of visibility of the Garda has serious consequences. It impacts people's sense of safety, deterrence and crime prevention. Yesterday, we saw figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which showed an increase in a range of crimes, particularly burglaries, including violent burglaries, and theft. While the CSO figures are useful, although worrying, I think most people would accept there is a need for a more complete picture of the level of crime being experienced, given all instances of crime are not reported. I ask the Minister to consider introducing an annual victims survey, along the lines of the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which records all types of crimes experienced by people, including those crimes that may not have been reported to the Garda.

There is also a serious lack of community gardaí, who are crucial for policing with the community and building local trust and confidence in An Garda Síochána. These are the gardaí who will know what is going on in their communities and who will be able to identify when young people are becoming involved in crime. Increasing the number of community gardaí is an issue that I particularly want the Minister to address.

The intake capacity for Garda training must be increased. It is clear that additional training places must be put in place to deliver the numbers required. Sinn Féin believes that we must aim for 16,000 active gardaí. There have been a number of very serious criminal incidents recently, particularly in Dublin, including a fatal stabbing in the city centre. There is a real concern about the growing issue of knife crime, the growing incidence of people carrying knives and the devastating consequences. It is crucial that these issues are tackled and there is no tolerance for knife crime, which is endemic in other countries. We want to prevent that here.

The issue of the number of crimes being committed by those on bail, to which the Minister referred, must be examined to ensure our bail laws are being appropriately applied where there is a clear risk of someone committing further crimes while on bail. If our bail laws are not adequate, that must be addressed. I expect to be speaking to the Minister regularly in the coming months about the Shane O'Farrell case. I keep feeling that had any Government since 2011 established a public inquiry into that case, many of the lessons we need to learn in respect of bail law would be evident. I hope the Minister will move to establish such a public inquiry.

An issue has arisen whereby joint policing committees, JPCs, have not been re-established and local community safety partnerships, LCSPs, have not been set up. The delay in the establishment of the LCSPs and the lack of JPCs is leaving a dangerous vacuum in our communities and denying communities the ability to address ongoing concerns regarding crime and community safety. The LCSPs should be established as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the JPCs should be reconvened.

While it is crucial that we increase the number of gardaí on the beat, we also need greater focus on tackling the causes of crime and preventing young people from getting into crime. Ensuring that those who become involved are rehabilitated rather than dragged further into a life of crime is crucial. I want from this Government a proper commitment to investment in youth diversion programmes, youth facilities, children and family services, rehabilitation and innovative approaches to probation that focus on ensuring that young people, in particular, can go on to build productive lives and careers away from crime and criminality.

It is also vital that we put in place supports and services to address other factors that can contribute to crime and antisocial behaviour, including drug and alcohol addiction, gambling and mental health issues. Our objective must be to keep as many people as possible out of the criminal justice system by tackling the causes of crime.

I will briefly talk about sentencing, an issue I have already raised with the Minister. Sentencing must reflect the gravity of the offence. If, as in a recent case, we see a judgment where there is no punishment for the loss of life due to the imposition of a concurrent sentence, it undermines not only the important principle of deterrence but also public confidence in our justice system. There are already requirements to impose consecutive sentences in certain circumstances, such as for crimes committed when somebody is on bail or serving a prison sentence. That should also be the case where there is a loss of life. The change I am proposing is to legislate for consecutive sentences in cases where there is a loss of life in order to avoid sentences that are manifestly wrong. I hope the Minister will support that proposal. We have an issue in our communities and there are many areas we need to address but, crucially and fundamentally, we need more gardaí on our streets and in our communities.

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