Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reason he did not ensure that a replacement Minister attended the recent AGSI conference on his behalf; and his views on the reason he was not invited to the GRA conference. [19612/14]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister has given a reason as to why he could not attend the AGSI conference, which is fair enough. However, why did he not send a Minister of State or another Minister to engage with the Garda sergeants and inspectors who were present? Why for the second year in a row did the Garda Representative Association not invite the Minister to attend its conference?

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, I was not in a position to attend the AGSI conference on the evening of Monday, 14 April for personal reasons. I was also scheduled to attend a meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, 15 April regarding my duties as Minister for Defence. My difficulties were explained to the general secretary of the AGSI and, while he was understandably disappointed, I believe he understood the position in which I found myself. Officials from my Department attended and the question of arranging for a replacement speaker to make an address on my behalf did not arise. I also wrote to the general secretary of the AGSI expressing my regret at not being able to attend and also recording my appreciation for the service that his members and indeed all gardaí provide on a daily basis in countering crime and maintaining the security of the State.

I greatly value continued engagement with the AGSI and the other Garda representative bodies on a wide range of policing issues. In this context I have since received a very constructive letter from the general secretary of the AGSI on the case for the widest possible level of consultation on the review of the Garda Síochána, and I will carefully consider his views.

I did not receive an invitation to attend the GRA conference in Killarney this week. I did not receive an invitation to attend its conference last year either. It is of course entirely a matter for the GRA to decide whom it wishes to invite to its conference and how it should conduct its business, but again I want to make clear that I favour positive engagement with the Garda representative bodies on policing issues. I would be more than happy to meet representatives of the GRA or the other Garda associations at any time. We certainly should be able to have a frank, open and constructive discussion on policing matters, particularly at a time of significant policing reform, and I look forward to that engagement.

It is a time for review and reform in respect of An Garda Síochána and pursuant to the Haddington Road agreement issues relating to the efficiency, effectiveness, structure organisation, staffing and deployment of An Garda Síochána are being addressed. I look forward to the positive and constructive engagement of the Garda associations in that process.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister said the possibility of sending a replacement Minister or Minister of State did not arise. Can he give me further information on how it did not arise? When was he invited? On what date did he receive the invite to attend the AGSI conference? When did he become aware of a clash? What arrangements could he have made to send another Minister? Apparently, many years ago, the Minister of the day could not attend but another attended in his place. Yesterday the GRA president made the point that what really got to its members was the spin where the Government announced it had put in place hundreds of new Garda vehicles, but what it did not say was that hundreds more had been taken off the road. The GRA president spoke about the fact that there was no real consultation with its members. Does the Minister agree that it is now at crisis point where not only has he not been invited to engage with the GRA for a second year in a row but when the ASGI invites him, he does not even send a replacement Minister?

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I think there is a need to de-politicise the debate on Garda matters. His concern is very touching, but it is also hypocritical as he spent most of the first four months of the year denigrating members of An Garda Síochána in this House.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Minister is the one who did that.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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When interviewed yesterday on "Morning Ireland", I noted that a member of An Garda Síochána attending the GRA conference rightly criticised gardaí being used as political footballs by some Members of the House. He was clearly referencing Members opposite. I said and say again that I welcome constructive engagement with various Garda associations. Since becoming Minister, I have attended the 2012 and 2013 AGSI annual conferences. I have attended all of the annual conferences of Garda superintendents and attended one GRA conference until in the midst of the issues of controversy that arose relating to Croke Park II, it determined not to invite me. I regret that I was not invited this year. However, I draw to the Deputy's attention that in August 2012 I invited the GRA to discuss issues of mutual interest, but this invitation was not taken up. In January 2013 my Department asked by email if the GRA proposed to send a request for a meeting in advance of the annual delegate meeting, but the GRA did not respond to this e-mail and, subsequently, it determined not to invite me to the conference. I met the AGSI in October 2012. Earlier this year we received a request for a meeting from it which I hope will take place in the not too distant future; therefore, I am quite happy to engage with the Garda associations on a constructive basis.

I reiterate that we are in a time of political change and, when it comes to An Garda Síochána, reform and renewal. It is of particular importance that there be direct engagement. I am presuming the Garda associations will, as I know they will, all contribute to the review under the Haddington Road agreement. I will write to them to ask them to furnish to the Cabinet sub-committee dealing with justice issues which is focusing particularly on the establishment of a police authority their submissions on the creation of a police authority, its structure and powers and appointments to it. I look forward to constructive engagement in the coming months and hope each of the Garda associations will approach matters in a similar way.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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After all the crises and given the problems he has caused for his colleagues in knocking on doors every day across the State, the way he has managed all of these affairs and how he has summarised the role of the Opposition as denigrating members of An Garda Síochána, at times the Minister takes no responsibility whatsoever for his mishandling of all of these affairs. It is everybody else's fault but his - everybody else is denigrating members of An Garda Síochána.

Nobody buys that. Gardaí at the coalface have lost confidence in the Minister. They have listened to the spin around efficiency, modernisation and smart policing to justify all the cutbacks and failures to engage. The situation has reached this point and still the Minister looks over at the Opposition benches to try to find blame. The Minister should look in the mirror. That is where the blame lies. He should deal with that.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's difficulty is he cannot make up his mind, depending on which day of the week it is, whether he should come to this House and excoriate members of the Garda force or make a pretence of being supportive of members of the Garda force. In the meantime, the Deputy stayed extraordinarily quiet when one of his colleagues, who sits behind him in this House, greeted some of those members with whom his party was associated upon their release for being involved in the death of Detective Garda McCabe. The Deputy should make up his mind what the narrative is, whether he is critical on a daily basis of the gardaí, supportive of them or just willing to spin whatever line he thinks will get him on the broadcast media or get a headline. The reality is we need to take the politics out of An Garda Síochána. If there is a problem with morale, it is because of the daily onslaught in this House by members of the Opposition on members of the Garda force where there have been difficulties within the force. The Garda Inspectorate report set out those difficulties. It was a report I sought, but when the report was published, Members opposite me sought to smear every member of An Garda Síochána with having been engaged in wrongdoing, and then they accused me of behaving in a manner that impacts on the morale of the force.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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One of the great advantages of creating a police authority is that, in the atmosphere that has been created purely based on political opportunism by Opposition Members of this House, we take the Garda out of politics.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We must go on to the next question.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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That is the great benefit of us putting in place legislation for a police authority.