Dáil debates
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
An Garda Síochána
9:50 am
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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8. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the provision made for leadership development at all levels of the Garda force and how leadership development is benchmarked and reported; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8348/24]
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In any organisation the quality of leadership is the single biggest factor determining the successful outcomes, whether it be in enterprises or schools. It may be said that some leaders are born, but most leaders are created and the skills are learned. We spend too little on developing leadership. I would like to hear an audit of the situation in the Garda Síochána.
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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An Garda Síochána is committed to investing in leadership at all levels of the organisation through a clear understanding of requirements and focused development. Effective leadership enables the organisation to respond to changing demands with agility and to positively impact the culture of the organisation, obviously filtering down through it. Extensive provision is made for leadership development at all levels within An Garda Síochána, including both Garda members and staff. More than €44 million is provided for overall training purposes in 2024, an increase of 18% when compared with 2019.
Much of the training takes place in Templemore which has a section dedicated to professional development with the aim of designing, developing and delivering a range of leadership, management and professional development training courses. The needs are assessed in annual learning and development plans. I am informed that a number of programmes are delivered in-house annually, including on the following areas: behavioural leadership, strategic thinking, coaching, adaptive leadership change, and mentoring.
Tailored leadership training is designed to cater for Garda members and staff at all levels of the organisation. Specific senior management and behavioural leadership programmes are delivered to ranks from inspector up to chief superintendent and from higher executive officer up to principal officer grade, with a supervisory management and behavioural leadership programme delivered to sergeants and executive officers.
As the Deputy may be aware, An Garda Síochána also partners with external academic institutions to further support and embed leadership skills in the organisation. These include the Irish Management Institute, UCD's Smurfit Business School and the University of Limerick.
In 2022, in excess of 40 senior management personnel graduated from a dedicated Garda executive leadership programme, with a level 9 postgraduate diploma in leadership in policing delivered by the Irish Management Institute and accredited by University College Cork. Executive coaching supports were provided to all newly promoted senior management personnel as part of their development programme.
I assure the Deputy that given the nature of work carried out by gardaí, it is important that leadership qualities are developed, supported and enhanced so that the entire organisation can benefit.
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome some of the detail but I think there is a problem here. Allocating 2% to total training, including initial training, is certainly not enough. Under the heading of Enabling Curiosity and Learning, the Policing Authority in its most recent review reported that review of performance is inconsistent and does not focus on outcomes. It points to a gulf with the experience learnt from those on the front line and strategic management in the Garda.
10 o’clock
It says that notable examples of excellence are out there, but there is no shared understanding and no learning from these excellent examples. We need to empower leadership at local level in An Garda Síochána and we need to give people the time and the tools to have honest conversations about how an individual station or division is operating. I do not see evidence that such self-examination and learning is happening in An Garda Síochána. In 2015 it was reported that no in-service training was occurring in An Garda Síochána and that a learning strategy was to be developed. Have we made sufficient progress since then? There needs to be a specific audit of how empowered local leaders feel in individual units so that they can lead more effectively.
10:00 am
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy. There is always more we can do. One of the biggest challenges in providing training over recent years has been ensuring gardaí have the time to take up courses, either during their working time or outside of that. It is about investment in Garda members and ensuring we have the capacity and the ability for members to take time off. This is hugely important. We also must ensure that we have the funding and that gardaí are looking at what type of training is required. The Deputy is right in saying we must ensure it is benchmarked and monitored. A framework within the Garda College looks at programme monitoring, periodic reviews, external examiner reviews, student surveys and internal policy reviews. The overall objective of the framework is to ensure the training that is being provided is doing what it needs to do and, as the Deputy states, we have an understanding that it is working and that people are benefiting from it.
An overall audit is something that could be looked at. Certainly, if there is a need to do more and to identify where the gaps are, such an audit would certainly identify them.
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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It is essential that we take this more seriously. The reality is that releasing people to attend courses does not deliver improved leadership at local level. Leadership at local level is about leaders having the tools to critically examine what they are doing, to learn from best examples elsewhere, to bring a team with them to make changes, to monitor whether that is happening and to give resources to those who are ambitious. I do not see that happening in our Garda force yet. We need to look very seriously at how it can be done. It is relatively cheap in resource terms compared to many of the other challenges faced by the force.
Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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On the issue of leadership within An Garda Síochána, on Tuesday night there was a very serious incident on Kilmore Road and Churchfield Road in Cork. My concern, and I have actually written to the Minister, to the Commissioner and to the gardaí locally in Cork about this, is that somebody should have made a call that a serious incident was taking place. This goes back to the point about leadership. Who was making the call? Hundreds of young people could not go in and out of their local sporting clubs because a road was blocked for an hour. A car was set on fire, people were injured, and the fire brigade and the gardaí came under attack with fireworks. There is video evidence to show this. A call was not put out in Cork for all available gardaí to come. That goes back to the whole issue of leadership and the structures. This is the second time this has happened on this road in 12 months and the whole question of leadership now needs to be looked at.
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I agree with both Deputies. It is absolutely vital that people at senior levels, such as sergeants, inspectors, superintendents, chief superintendents and those at the top or the higher end of the organisation, have the ability to lead and have those qualities and skills. Members often have to make split-second decisions. Obviously, this is easier for those who have the training and have gone through the motions. Leadership training is being developed and delivered. It is looked at in a number of ways but there are taught phases and experiential phases also. There are blended modules, which involve people doing in-class learning while also taking on board practical experience. For any type of leadership training, it cannot just involve sitting in front of a computer. That does not work. There has to be practical experience too. There is always more we can do. There is a training budget and it has increased. The Deputy is correct when he says we need to have full oversight of how it is working and where it can be improved. There is more work that can be done. I accept it is something that should and could be done.