James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Often we see that apart from what is stolen, the damage done to the houses often costs more than whatever money obtained for the stolen property. The damage to people's minds is often far more profound. I thank Deputies Ó Laoghaire and Kenny for bringing forward this Bill and for speaking on it this evening. I am acutely conscious of the impact of property crime, not only in financial terms but in how it makes people feel both victimised and unsafe. It affects both urban and rural communities and as public representatives, we regularly deal with constituents who have been victims of such crimes, and we see the distress caused. These crimes can be particularly upsetting for older and more vulnerable people and, sadly, the financial incentive involved sometimes motivates even more serious violent offences.

Property crime has particularly serious consequences for rural communities where population is dispersed, and the effect of a theft can be to undermine a person’s livelihood. Having detailed information that can be used to identify stolen property is undoubtedly valuable in assisting in the investigation of thefts, and in facilitating the recovery of property. This concern motivated the development of the An Garda Síochána property app, which was launched last year. It facilitates the recording of property, including photographs and any unique information associated with items. Should property be stolen, this can then easily be shared through the app with An Garda Síochána. The app allows for the property details to be backed up via an online provider if the mobile device itself is lost or stolen. Importantly, the information stored is only shared with An Garda Síochána when reporting a theft. This is important from a data protection perspective. Information, including any personal data, entered in the app is stored locally on an individual’s mobile device, or backed up on a personal cloud service. It is not shared or stored in any Garda Síochána system. The only personal data from the app provided to An Garda Síochána is the content provided by users when submitting a report of stolen property. This approach is somewhat distinct from one where information is stored with An Garda Síochána before any theft occurs. Such a system would face a number of challenges. The first is simply the volume and accuracy of data. Millions of items might be stored with a high likelihood that the information may then become out of date and misleading. In practical terms, if an item without a unique identifier is stolen, it is much easier to find it among similar items that have recently been reported stolen than it is to find it among a potentially vast register of such items, most of which will thankfully remain with their owners.

The question also arises as to what An Garda Síochána may do with the data stored. The Bill refers to use for the prevention and detection of crime. I would imagine that the intent is to limit this to the investigation of the theft of the property concerned but as it stands, it might be a basis for the investigation of the person registering the property. This points to an underlying challenge in respect of this sort of broad data collection. Notwithstanding that the data are provided with the consent of the person, processing of them must be done in accordance with data protection principles. Consideration would need to be given to storage limitation, questions of necessity, whether it is mass processing of personal data falling under Article 35 of the general data protection regulation, GDPR, and so on.

A large-scale register would involve significant technical investment and cost. The resources required to maintain and ensure a level of quality control of the register could end up negatively impacting on the provision of a policing service.

In introducing the Bill, the Deputy mentioned the UK system, which is called the national property register. I emphasise this is not a statutory or police-operated system but a private database made accessible to police services on a limited basis. Taking all these elements together, my view is after-the-fact reporting is preferable, and this is what the Garda has put in place. It allows a focused approach to stolen property rather than all property, and the feedback has suggested this is also preferable for users, as people are understandably reluctant to share large quantities of personal information if it is not necessary. User acceptance and uptake is clearly critical for the success of a scheme such as this.

Taking a broader look at this issue, I mention Property Marking Ireland. This is a not-for-profit social enterprise financially supported by my Department. It operates through local communities and bodies to provide property marking services. Items are marked using a Telesis device and signs are displayed on the premises to highlight participation in the programme. My Department is providing Property Marking Ireland with funding of €300,000 for a four-year period beginning in 2022 so the service can be expanded to all 26 counties. It is envisaged the scheme will ultimately become self-financing. This is just one of a number of initiatives funded by my Department to support rural and community safety throughout the country.

Deputies will also be aware of the community safety innovation fund established in April 2021. This allows proceeds of crime recovered by the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, to be directed into community projects to support community safety. The fund itself highlights the successes of the Garda Síochána and the CAB and ensures these successes will be used to create stronger, safer communities. The fund was allocated €2 million under budget 2022 across 22 innovative projects and an increased allocation of €3 million under budget 2023. The 2023 funding call was opened on Monday and is offering grants from €20,000 to €150,000.

While technical measures are important, they can only be one part of a policing response to property crime. Community safety is a whole-of-government responsibility and requires a multi-agency approach. Under my Department's community safety policy, new local community safety partnerships will replace and build upon the existing joint policing committees. These new partnerships provide an enhanced forum for State agencies and local community representatives to work together to act on community concerns. Three pilot partnerships are currently under way in Longford, Waterford and Dublin's north inner city, and a full national roll-out of community safety plans is scheduled for 2024.

A key element of our policy on building safer and stronger communities is that communities themselves have a crucial role to play. There is no one-size-fits-all approach because each community has different needs and challenges. It is the people living and working in communities who are best placed to know the key issues affecting an area. They are best placed to identify the solutions that can be delivered collaboratively to improve community unity and safety. Last September, I was delighted to publish the Rural Safety Plan 2022-2024 at the National Ploughing Championships. The plan gathers together the excellent work under way relating to rural safety and is a testament to the committed collaboration between the various stakeholder organisations. The plan, which builds on the work of the National Rural Safety Forum, identifies five main priorities with respect to community safety, namely, burglary and theft, roads policing, animal crime and heritage crime. It affirms community safety is not just about the number of gardaí in communities.

That said, the Deputy will note almost 500 Garda recruits passed through the Garda College in 2022 and the new recruitment campaign, which will see the recruitment of 1,000 new gardaí, opened for applications last Friday. This will secure a strong pipeline of recruits for the Garda College into the future. Earlier this month we also saw the official opening of the new Garda station on O’Connell Street. This will ensure a high-visibility policing presence in an area that has significant tourist and commercial footfall, and follows the opening of nearby Fitzgibbon Street Garda station.

Particular initiatives are undertaken to target certain categories of thefts. For example, Operation Handlebar, established in 2021, is a proactive operation specifically designed to combat the theft of bikes and e-scooters in the Dublin metropolitan region. It consists of two strands, the first of which involves the provision of dedicated marking for bikes and e-scooters by members of the Garda Síochána and the second relates to the blue bike initiative, which highlights bike theft hotspots by placing an end-of-life bike, painted blue, with a large sign warning members of the public to lock their bikes and be aware of bike theft.

One of the main focus areas of Operation Thor is crime prevention through visible, focused patrols at specific times of day, and it targets burglary hotspots and utilises high-visibility checkpoints that prevent ease of movement. It also aims to reduce burglaries by ensuring every burglary is appropriately investigated to the highest possible standard and by monitoring crime data daily for changes in trends of burglaries, associated crimes and detection rates. Earlier this month, as part of a policing operation targeting organised crime groups and repeat offenders, gardaí in the Coolock and Raheny districts charged 40 individuals aged between 18 and 63 years with a total of 60 offences, including burglary and associated crimes. A further two individuals arrested as part of the operation are being dealt with under the Garda youth diversion programme. Operation Thor has also had recent success in Westmeath, where as part of ongoing investigations into local criminal activity, gardaí conducted both covert and highly visible crime and burglary patrols, along with a series of checkpoints that resulted in a number of road traffic and crime-related detections.

All of these measures play a role in ensuring our communities are safe and attractive to visit, live in and do business in. Initiatives like the Garda Síochána property app and the Property Marking Ireland scheme will not only complement the measures I have mentioned, as well as other targeted policing initiatives, but will themselves be effective tools in the fight against crime and the return of stolen property to its owners.

As I said at the beginning of my remarks, registering detailed information that may be used to identify stolen property is undoubtedly valuable in assisting in the investigation of a theft and the recovery of the property. However, difficulties have been identified with the approach proposed, where information would be made available to the Garda Síochána in respect of all property prior to a theft. There is a lack of clear notable advantages a register like this would provide over the system already in place, not to mention the fact significant technical investment and cost would be required to establish and maintain such a register. This being the case, the Government is not able to support the Bill’s progress. This is not a reflection on the good intention or the hard work and determination of the Deputy but is simply of the fact the Bill has been overtaken by events since it was introduced in 2019. It would not be practical or a good use of resources to mandate the Garda to start developing another solution.