Results 5,741-5,760 of 16,389 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The Garda has said it is causing difficulty, given the level at which the officer has to attend court. By reducing it to inspector, it will be much easier for the Garda to use it. It is proving difficult for its members and by reducing it to the rank of inspector, there will be more flexibility and an ability for them to attend court in the way they need. It does not take away any of the...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendment relates to section 201, which provides for the establishment of arrangements for the handling of complaints which the police ombudsman has deemed suitable for resolution by An Garda Síochána. The amendment relates specifically to subsection (3)(g), which provides that the arrangements established under the section shall include, "the provision, where appropriate, of...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: Under the term "guidance", not "advice", yes.

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: Section 208 provides for the appointment of a designated officer to undertake investigations of admissible complaints and other specified matters where the police ombudsman is required to undertake such investigations or has determined such investigation is warranted. This minor amendment is required to correct a cross-reference which referred to section 204(2), when it should have been more...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This amendment is required to correct an error identified in section 215(1)(a)(iii). Section 215 deals more broadly with the provision of reports to the Garda Commissioner by the police ombudsman on foot of a police ombudsman investigation. As previously drafted, the subparagraph in question applied only to members of An Garda Síochána and not to members of Garda staff. This is...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendment concerns section 224, which provides that the police ombudsman can review certain decisions made relating to the inadmissibility of a complaint or the discontinuation of an investigation. The amendment was required following a request from GSOC to reconsider subsections (6) and (7) of section 224, which set out how a person should be notified of a decision that a complaint made...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This amendment relates to section 228, which deals generally with transitional complaints and investigations of GSOC when moving from the 2005 Act to the new regime under this Bill. My Department was informed there was a GSOC examination ongoing under section 106 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005. That section allows GSOC to examine the practices, policies or procedures of An Garda...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This ministerial amendment is technical and required to deal with an error that occurred in the transposition of the Bill as amended on Committee Stage in this House. Section 252 lists sections of the Bill under which orders or regulations may be made in the post-Committee Stage draft of the Bill. Paragraph (j) in subsection (3) referred to section 3 of the Bill. This is incorrect as there...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This amendment is technical and necessary to correct an error that occurred in the drafting process. Section 266(k)(ii) amends section 47(1A) of the Coroners Act 1962, a provision which allows for the current ombudsman commission to perform functions in relation to requesting the exhumation of bodies in certain circumstances. Section 266(k)(ii) updates references to the ombudsman...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendments in this grouping concern section 114,l which provides for the making of regulations to establish new local community safety partnerships, LCSPs. These new partnerships will, on a phased basis, replace the existing joint policing committees, JPCs, with a new broader type of body, built around a key principle of the Bill that community safety is not just a matter for An Garda...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This amendment concerns section 118, which places certain duties on public service bodies in respect of improving community safety. The amendment simply ensures that public bodies must now include in their strategic plans an assessment of the issues affecting community safety that is relevant to its functions. The body will also be required to include the actions or proposed actions in...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendments in this grouping provide for the deletion of section 165 in its entirety along with any other references to that section contained in the Bill. In short, section 165 provided for the transfer by ministerial order of staff of the current Garda Síochána Inspectorate to the new policing security and community safety authority. At the time of drafting, it was considered...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendment was proposed by Senators Ruane, Black and Flynn and it is in the same vein as amendment No. 2. It sought to include data protection as a listed area of desired expertise for membership of the new policing and community safety authority. As I had supported the Senators' amendment with regard to ensuring that data protection was included in the criteria required of the Garda...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendments in grouping 9 are ministerial and are technical in nature. They are necessary to update collective citations for other Acts mentioned in sections 155 and 165 of the Bill. References to the Maternity Protection Acts, 1994 and 2004, will now become references to the Maternity Protection Acts, 1994 to 2022. This is on foot of the provisions of the Local Government (Maternity...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This set of amendments relates to the recommendation of a person for appointment to the role of police ombudsman. They concern section 172 and the appointment of the police ombudsman under section 174, which relates to the terms and conditions of office, and the insertion of a new section 173. Following the conclusion of the Dáil debate on this Bill, I gave further consideration to...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The official branding will have to have the Irish and English on equal terms. While I cannot dictate at every stage how somebody refers to themselves, I will most likely be referring to Fiosrú. It is about ongoing engagement to make sure one is not used more than the other. As the Deputy said, it is a simple name people will be able to use, understand and relate to. It should be no...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: That would be the intention.

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: This is an amendment put forward by Senators Ruane, Black and Flynn, which I supported in the Seanad. It relates to section 16 of the Bill, specifically to the list of matters that persons recommended by the Public Appointments Service for appointment as members of the new Garda board are to have experience and expertise in. The amendment adds data protection to sub-paragraph (b), in...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendments in this grouping are necessary to bring certain provisions in this Bill in line with the requirements of the 2019 EU directive on debt and insolvency issues. I was advised that as previously drafted the provisions in the Bill, which bar a person who is bankrupt from the Garda board, the policing and community safety authority and office of the independent examiner were not in...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: From the Seanad (31 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The amendments in this grouping concern sections 32 and 225, which provide for different types of judicial led inquiries under the Bill. During debates on the Bill in the Dáil, it was noted by Deputies Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Brendan Howlin that the sections providing for judicial inquiry lacked any penalties for non-compliance of the respective judge leading the...