Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The issue I wish to raise concerns the failure of the Government to fill vacancies at the rank of chief superintendent in An Garda Síochána. The Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, will be aware that on 23 December 2015 a competition was held for appointment to the rank of chief superintendent. An interview board was selected and the competition was conducted in accordance with Civil Service appointments guidelines.

On 25 May 2016, 18 people were notified by letter of their successful selection for appointment to the position of chief superintendent. The list of successful candidates was published in Garda headquarters on 26 May and 6 July last. Shortly afterwards, the Government accepted the legitimacy of that panel of 18. However, it only appointed ten of the successful persons on the panel as chief superintendents. Although the remaining eight were part of the panel established on foot of the competition, none has been appointed to date.

I support the fact that future promotions to the positions of superintendent and chief superintendent in An Garda Síochána will be the responsibility of the Policing Authority. The House provided for this under section 12 of the Policing Authority Act. I have called on the Government to expedite that measure. Nonetheless, that process is not in place at present. This does not mean, however, that the Government can walk away from its responsibility to appoint chief superintendents to vacant positions. There are vacancies for chief superintendent in Cork west, the special detective unit, the roads policy unit, the technical bureau, the crime policing administration unit, the central vetting unit, the operational support unit, the Dublin metropolitan regional office, the Garda Reserve and in internal affairs. All these units need chief superintendents.

Are we now going to have a situation such as that which exists in the Judiciary, whereby the Government is unprepared to fulfil its duty because it is waiting for a new regime to come into place? I understand that the policing authority and the Department have prepared recruitment and promotion guidelines which, we are told, will be introduced before the end of the year. However, it is unfair to the eight individuals who succeeded in the competition if the Government now puts it to them that they will not be promoted.

They went through a competition, they succeeded and a panel of 18 was established on foot of the competition. Each of them signed a declaration that any panel established on foot of the competition would cease on 31 December 2016 or on the commencement of section 12. However, the Government cannot seek now to subdivide the panel. It was a panel of 18 successful competitors. It exists as a panel or it falls as a panel. The eight who have been discarded have a legitimate expectation that they would be appointed. In short, they were part of the panel, and it is unfair on the eight successful candidates for the Government now to offer its apologies and state that it will only accept part of the panel. I am sure the eight individuals will apply again if it is the case that the Policing Authority will be given retrospective responsibility for these appointments. However, if that happens, it will be even more unfair on these eight individuals because unless they are promoted by the Policing Authority, it will be presented as though they were previously appointed but then rejected by the Policing Authority.

There are always issues in respect of transitional changes in statutory regimes. That is what we have here. Everyone welcomes the fact that the Policing Authority will take over responsibility in this regard, but these eight people should be treated fairly. The Government is not treating them fairly. They are entitled to expect that the State will honour the terms of the competition that previously existed and the integrity of the panel that was established last summer. Fairness requires that the eight successful applicants should be appointed. They succeeded under the system under which we all operate at present.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I am here on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, on whose behalf I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

As the Deputy will be aware, section 12 of the Garda Síochána (Policing Authority and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 provides for the transfer of the appointment of persons to the ranks of assistant Garda commissioner, chief superintendent and superintendent to the Policing Authority. The Minister is committed to the authority assuming its functions regarding senior appointments as soon as practicable, and work is ongoing in her Department on the preparation of the necessary regulations to facilitate this. At this stage, subject to the authority confirming that it is ready to undertake selection competitions so as to avoid any undue delay in the filling of vacancies, the Minister expects to make the necessary commencement order in December. In the interim, the appointment of persons to the senior ranks remains a matter for Government in accordance with section 13 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.

Earlier this year, at the request of the Garda Commissioner, the Government made a number of appointments to the senior ranks to fill existing vacancies as follows: four appointments were made to the rank of assistant commissioner on 24 May; ten appointments to the rank of chief superintendent; and 18 to the rank of superintendent on 13 July. The appointments were made in accordance with the statutory framework as set out in the 2005 Act and related regulations. In particular, the appointees were drawn in order of merit from promotion panels formed on foot of competitions held by the Garda Commissioner in accordance with the Garda Síochána (Promotion) Regulations 2006.

The Policing Authority was consulted on the proposal to fill these vacancies and it supported the filling of these critical posts up to the limit of the agreed strength as approved by the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The appointment of the ten chief superintendents in July brought the number of chief superintendents to the agreed strength as set out in the employment control framework of An Garda Síochána as approved by my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The Minister was informed by the Garda Commissioner that in September this year a chief superintendent retired. This, together with the recent departure of an assistant commissioner to take up a post abroad, brings the number of vacancies in the senior ranks to three, including one at superintendent level.

As I have outlined, the intention is to transfer the appointment function to the authority very shortly. Once this is done, it will be a matter for the authority to undertake its own selection competitions for appointments to these ranks. The transfer of this function is a very important signal of reform and, taking account of the very recent origin of the current vacancies, I am sure the Deputy will understand that the Minister's clear preference is that the authority should have the opportunity as early as possible after taking on this function to exercise the function itself. This will give confidence to the new oversight arrangements in place and to the role of the Policing Authority in those arrangements.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply, but he still has not dealt with the central issue I raised, namely, the unfairness to the eight individuals who succeeded in this competition but who are now told that the panel of which they were a part will not be accepted by the Government. Everyone in this House - or most people in this House - welcomes the fact that, in future, important decisions in An Garda Síochána as to who should be promoted will be made by the Policing Authority. That is a positive development. However, we need to consider where we are at present. We do not have that system in place. We do not have a system in place whereby the regulations are available to the Policing Authority, which in turn has the power to promote individuals within An Garda Síochána. Consequently, we are operating under the old regime. Everyone welcomes the transition that will take place. However, since we are still operating under the old regime, fairness dictates that the individuals who were on that panel and who had a legitimate expectation that it would be kept intact should be entitled to promotion to the position of chief superintendent.

I note that the Minister of State says it is the expectation of the Minister that all of this new regime will be in place shortly. We do not know that will be the case. On many occasions in this House we have been told that there is an expectation that something will be done shortly. We cannot allow the governance of this country to come to a standstill simply because we are waiting for a new statutory regime to be put in place. That is what has been done in respect of the appointment of judges. It now appears it is being done in respect of the promotion of individuals within An Garda Síochána to chief superintendent. The job of Government is to govern. Nobody can criticise the Government for the fact that there are vacancies within An Garda Síochána for positions of chief superintendent if it now proceeds to fill them.

I will conclude by saying once again that the eight individuals who succeeded in this competition and who are on the panel - and that panel has resulted in certain individuals being promoted - have a legitimate expectation and a right to expect fairness from this Government.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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As I said, the Minister is committed to the authority assuming its functions regarding senior appointments as soon as practicable. Her Department is working as a matter of priority on the preparations required to give effect to this transfer before the end of the year. The commencement of section 12 is dependent on the regulations governing promotion in An Garda Síochána being amended to reflect the envisaged role of the authority. In accordance with the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner and the authority must be consulted on any proposed changes to these regulations. In addition, the Garda representative bodies are being consulted. Work on the preparation of the proposed changes to the regulations is well advanced in the Department and, as I said, the Minister expects that this necessary preparatory work will be completed this year. All going to plan, the function will transfer to the authority in December. I have taken note of other points the Deputy has raised, and we will bring them to the attention of the Minister.