Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In my limited time to talk about policing community safety, I will focus on a couple of key points. The first is pay for gardaí. We need to create total pay restoration to the levels before the economic downturn. As I have mentioned in respect of nurses, if we are to have gardaí posted in urban areas, they need a Dublin allowance as an incentive. Otherwise we will be unable to replace the officers leaving the force. I put that first and foremost.

The second thing is community policing. You get more bang for your buck when you are able to be out there, liaising with people from all sorts of backgrounds and identifying problems before they happen. That is policing at its best.

We need to be putting the skills of our gardaí to their best use. I would not be one for diminishing the fitness test, for example. I suggest a super fit, focused and trained Garda core. However, why not have a dedicated Garda traffic corps that specialises in that area? We could separate it entirely. There are people who would be interested in traffic policing but would never think of getting involved in on-street policing. We might need to consider that option.

We need to update the IT systems. PULSE was not fit for purpose when it came out in the 1990s and it is definitely not fit for purpose now. We have data accuracy integrity issues, access and security concerns, technical and usability problems and training and user competency issues for this old system.

Others have mentioned governance and oversight issues. There are a whole lot of concerns. I also believe we need to change the legislation to assist the Garda to ensure there are more consequences for those who offend. I am not only talking about curfews. I am also talking about Revenue getting involved to dock people's pay or social welfare if they are not working. We need to create consequences for people who commit crimes, thereby resulting in less work for the Garda to allow it to focus on the real issues.

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