Dáil debates
Tuesday, 14 February 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Antisocial Behaviour
10:50 pm
Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I am here to discuss crime and antisocial behaviour in Cabra. I want to say before I do that I do not believe Cabra is by any means different from any other part of the city or the country. Cabra is a very well-settled place full of people who love living there. Why would they not? There are issues in Cabra, as there are throughout other parts of Dublin, with an element of antisocial behaviour and some degree of crime. The issues in Cabra are by no means out of control, lawless or any different from what has happened over the past half a decade, ten years or beyond.
What is different is that people in Cabra believe that when something does happen - some degree of antisocial behaviour or, as we have seen recently, incidents where motorbikes have been burnt or where there have been large congregations of people engaged in fights and that sort of carry-on - there have not been any gardaí around. That is probably indicative of a trend emerging throughout the country whereby we simply do not see gardaí on the streets. When a call is made for whatever reason, be it a burglary, a domestic violence report or some form of antisocial behaviour happening outside a person's home, the Garda is called and gardaí may arrive the next day or the day after that. It has led to a sense that, to some degree, the gardaí are no longer themselves capable of providing an adequate standard of policing.
I raised this issue specifically in the context of Cabra because I have had a couple of meetings with residents there in recent weeks and months, but I could have raised it about anywhere. I simply want to ask Deputy Harris, in his capacity as Minister for Justice, what is the plan. We read reports yesterday of dwindling Garda numbers. One of the figures given was that, in November 2022, we had 13,907 gardaí, down from 14,750 in March 2020. I assure the Minister that I do not believe there is solely a policing solution to antisocial behaviour - far from it.
I believe in a multifaceted approach that involves: encouraging youth clubs; engaging with sport; positive role models; and engagements through our education systems. However, at a certain point we also just want to see some gardaí on the street. I am coming to the Minister on behalf of the people of Cabra - and also to talk about Dublin Central more broadly - and to ask what the plan is.
11:00 pm
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter and I take the point he makes about multifaceted approaches and solutions. I know he believes in community safety partnerships, diversion programmes and all of that, as do I, but we will take that as read and for another day because he is raising a specific issue, that is, the policing and criminal justice response to issues where antisocial behaviour and crime can emerge in a community. In this case he is highlighting issues in the Cabra part of his constituency and I thank him for doing so.
I am acutely aware of the damaging and potentially devastating impact that assaults and public order incidents can have on local communities. This criminal behaviour threatens both individual and community safety and I am unequivocal in my condemnation of it. Everybody has a right to feel safe and to be safe in their homes and communities. The Deputy will appreciate that the policing response to all incidents involving criminality, including the deployment of Garda resources at local level, are operational matters for An Garda Síochána in the first instance. I assure him that his comments on some of the issues he mentioned are sent to the Garda Commissioner and that he is aware of the perspective he is delivering on behalf of his constituents in Cabra.
I am advised that Garda management carefully monitors the incidence of all crime and that Garda resources are deployed in response to changing crime trends. This may include directing resources at areas that can be designated as hotspots from to time to time for public order or other criminal behaviour. I have received an update from An Garda Síochána on the incident which took place in Ashtown in Dublin in the last weekend in January. I understand a number of migrant men temporarily camping in the area were threatened by another group of men. This incident is the focus of a live and open Garda investigation and therefore I cannot comment further on it.
However, I want to assure communities that there is a range of legislation under which threats and intimidation can be prosecuted, including: the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act 1997; public order legislation; and incitement to hatred legislation. I should add the new hate crime Bill, which I hope we can receive support for across the House and which we hope to enact by the summer. This will further strengthen the existing legislation. More broadly, the Government is rolling out a number of policy and legislative initiates which will reduce the level of public order incidents in local communities, including introducing legislation to provide for body worn cameras for gardaí and community CCTV schemes. I intend to enact the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022 swiftly, to allow the Garda to commence a body worn camera pilot this year.
I intend to roll out the community safety innovation fund to drive the development of community safety projects at a local level. I intend to examine the use of antisocial behaviour orders to ensure they are as effective as possible, and considering the number of strikes attached to each order. I intend to introduce legislation to criminalise the grooming of children. I published legislation on this recently and it is so important that we never give the view that crime pays or can be a glamorous life when we know the heartache and pain it can bring and how it can ravage a community. I also intend to provide the Garda with new powers to seize and stop the illegal use of scrambler bikes.
At the end of 2017, I understand that the Dublin metropolitan region west division had a total of 672 gardaí, supported by 52 Garda staff. These figures rose to 721 gardaí, supported by 71 Garda staff, at the end of 2022. In Cabra, the number of Garda members has risen from 59 gardaí at the end of 2017 to 62 gardaí at the end of last year. I can confirm to the Deputy that Garda authorities have advised me that additional gardaí have been reallocated to Cabra station, in addition to a new Garda vehicle to provide further support to the local community in Cabra. I am assured by An Garda Síochána that these allocations have provided an ability to respond to calls and provide proactive and high-visibility patrols in a more timely manner. I am also advised by the Garda that there has been an increase in proactive patrols in the Cabra area and that this has resulted in a reduction in public order issues. More gardaí have been reallocated to Cabra, there is a new Garda vehicle there and more proactive patrols are what the Garda is detailing to me.
More broadly, I want to agree with the Deputy about the need to get Garda numbers up. We have funded An Garda Síochána to recruit 1,000 new Garda members into the Garda College in Templemore this year. That will be key to ensuring that Garda numbers begin to rise towards the end of this year and that we get to 15,000 or more gardaí by the end of 2024.
Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Cabra is situated in such a place that when gardaí need to be reallocated to other parts of the north side, it usually has to take the brunt of that. With the recent spate of protests, which I am reluctant to call them, or the engagements in which the Garda was involved, it was Cabra Garda station that lost some of its gardaí to go to those scenarios. Cabra is also situated beside the Phoenix Park so in terms of going to police Áras an Uachtaráin, Cabra loses its gardaí. That is also a situation that happens with the gardaí outside Leinster House; Pearse Street gardaí are reallocated up here. That is something we need to consider where there are buildings that need to be policed by gardaí on a 24-hour basis. It should not be local and community Garda stations that lose their gardaí in those instances.
I take the Minister's point on the action that has been taken with a new Garda patrol car. That will make a difference but it is there because there has been a spate of increased antisocial behaviour there. I also want to make the following request. A new Garda station will be opened on O'Connell Street and I implore the Minister to ensure that as that Garda station is staffed the gardaí are not taken from surrounding stations such as Store Street and Cabra. That has a genuine knock-on effect and there is a belief in some of these communities that when issues happen, such as the new surveillance on O'Connell Street following the "Prime Time" documentary, issues simply get pushed up and away. We need more community policing on the streets. When they are there our gardaí do a good and effective job and we need more of them. The community has a right to want to feel safe and protected at a time when it needs that protection. We need to do whatever we can to improve pay and conditions to ensure we can recruit gardaí and people into our Garda force because we need more of them.
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Gannon for highlighting what is an important issue to his community. More broadly, the issue of antisocial behaviour and feeling safe in one's community is one that applies to his constituency and to all our communities across the country. On Cabra specifically, I am pleased to confirm to the House that the Garda has informed me that additional gardaí have been allocated to Cabra recently and that it has the new Garda vehicle attached to Cabra Garda station. The Garda is telling me, and I appreciate that the Deputy has a much closer perspective on this than me, that the more proactive patrols are achieving an improvement in terms of a reduction in the number of public order offences and incidents, and I know it monitors that closely.
The Deputy is not wrong that it is about growing Garda numbers in general. I never like to pit specialist units against community gardaí because we need both, and the Deputy has not done that either. Specialist units in this capital city and in all of our communities, including emergency response units, drugs units and organised crime units, are playing a crucial role. We also want to see a growth in community policing. We want to see gardaí back out on the beat, walking the streets and knowing their communities. Under the new community policing model it is the intention for every community to know the name of their community garda and to have a contact number and email address for them. To do that we have to grow the Garda numbers. That is why we have given the Garda Commissioner and the Garda money to recruit 1,000 new gardaí this year. Around 350 gardaí retire from the force every year, on average, so that will enable us to see growth in overall Garda numbers during the course of the year. The Commissioner has said clearly that he wants 15,000 and more gardaí. That is where we want to get to.
We can get there and the Garda College is back open. I am not blaming Covid for everything because sometimes that can be too convenient an excuse but at the same time Covid did close the Garda College on a number of occasions and that definitely had an impact. The college is back open and a new class is due to go in during the coming weeks. Another class will go in roughly every ten weeks for the rest of this year. I hope these additions to Cabra will make a difference, I will feed back the Deputy's comments to the Garda authorities and I am happy to keep in touch on it.