Results 1,621-1,640 of 5,902 for speaker:James Lawless

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Business of Joint Committee (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: Before we move on to the main business of the meeting, on behalf of the committee, I wish to read the following statement into the record. At its meeting on 4 July 2023, the committee engaged in pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the defamation (amendment) Bill. Following the meeting, the committee received correspondence from a solicitor acting on behalf of Mr. Stephen Rae...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: I welcome the witnesses to the committee. The purpose of our meeting is to discuss policing matters. A range of matters will be traversed. The discussion will cover three main topics: challenges relating to rostering and recruitment and recent industrial relations issues; the policing of Dublin city; and the policing of protests. Those are three quite distinct topics but I am sure there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: I allowed some latitude on the time. I did the same for the GRA because of the matters to be considered.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Mr. Gallagher and all our guests. That concludes the initial opening statements. Quite a breadth of topics were covered. Topics 1 and 2 were mentioned but topic 3 perhaps did not get quite the same degree of attention in the opening statements. That is important and perhaps we will touch on that in the toing and froing over the course of the meeting. I will invite members to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: There is a short window left for responses to the Deputy's questions. There will be time over the course of the meeting for the witnesses to come back in. To keep it fair, I will stick to six-minute slots for each member. Does Ms Cunningham wish to respond to that set of questions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: Does Deputy Costello want to direct the question to any particular witness or across the board?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: We will start from the top with the GRA and take it down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: Ms Cunningham mentioned the Bill relating to body-worn cameras that is being debated in the Seanad. Our colleague, Senator Ward, who was here has gone to debate it. There was a lot of debate in the public domain in the past year or two. For the record, the committee endorsed the idea of body-worn cameras from the start. We had no issue whatsoever. There was a separate concern around...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: We will go reverse order. I will start with Mr. Gallagher who had his hand up the last time and did not get to contribute.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: What did the Deputy mean when he asked where they got the money?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: As opposed to a planning objection.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: There is a difference in magnitude with the money involved. I did not know the background.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: Do the representatives from the two other groups wish to comment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: That concludes the first round from the members present. One or two other members have been dipping in and out but they are in the Chamber at the moment. I am going to invite members to indicate for a second round but I will put a few questions before I do that. Members have had thematic questions but I have picked up a few others as we have gone along. There was reference to recruitment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: Mr. Gallagher spoke about 24 to 25 recidivist offenders. I think he said they are perpetrating most of the street crimes, violent crimes, robberies and that kind of thing around Dublin city centre. He might elaborate on that a little bit. Are they on bail for other crimes at the time? It seems an obvious solution to that would be to round up the usual suspects. Forgive me for advocating...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: There was a debate in the Houses last week on the Shane O'Farrell case, which I am sure some of the witnesses will be familiar with. One of the issues that arose was that the offender was on bail and allegedly had not been complying with bail conditions. This seems to be a pattern across many of these instances, where we have people who were on bail. Unfortunately, it seems to be almost...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: If somebody is supposed to sign on at the local Garda station every day as a condition of bail, and they do not sign on after seven days, say, what happens? Does the station, the sergeant in charge or a member in charge follow up on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: We will certainly put that question to it. To go back to the representatives of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, would it be fair to say there has been a decline in commercial activity in certain city centre areas, both in their industry of hospitality and in retail and other trades? Is there a sort of circle of doom because there is less footfall and more crime or are places closing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: The GRA may have touched on my final question, which is on overtime being used to increase resources on the street at particular times. Is such overtime voluntary or mandatory? If a big event such as a concert, a GAA match or the budget is coming up - Members appreciated the services that were provided in the House that day - and a major ramp-up of operations is covered by overtime, is that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

James Lawless: I will move on to Deputy Farrell who has had his hand up online.