Results 761-780 of 5,349 for speaker:Cathal Crowe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I thank Commissioner Harris and Assistant Commissioner Hilman for being here this afternoon. I have quite a few questions, which I might go through quickly in order that we might get a maximum amount of responses. In the aftermath of the Dublin riots, there was a national debate about whether the gardaí were allowed to use force or not. The Commissioner came out very quickly and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I am sorry?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: It 100% is. If the Chair will let me finish the question, it makes perfect sense. Can the clock be started again?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: In the aftermath of the Dublin riots, the Commissioner moved very quickly to clarify that An Garda Síochána representatives were allowed to use reasonable force when carrying out their duties. In respect of road policing, can similar reassurances be given to rank-and-file guards that go in behind the wheel and put on the siren and the beacon? Can they too use reasonable action...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I thank the Commissioner. When people turn on Channel 4, Sky One at night time, there are police shows from other countries and other jurisdictions where they seem to be able to exercise an awful lot of force to bring a vehicle to a stop to keep the public safe. While I will not comment on any case because we are not the justice committee here nor would it be right to comment on cases, I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: Is completing a blue beacon course a requirement to pursue a vehicle?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: In the absence of this policy, the law that the Commissioner refers to supersedes everything at the moment. It is about keeping the public safe. Blue beacon course or not, a garda can pursue someone if it is in the interests of public safety.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: It just seems to me that we have the law and law enforcement but there is a middle layer from Garda headquarters. I am specifically referring, on this occasion, to scrambler bikes. A diktat went out from Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park. We have the law which provides for the apprehension, confiscation and removal of these bikes and we have gardaí wanting to enforce it but in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: In terms of the legislative process in the Oireachtas, we continue to update road traffic Acts, penalty point regulations and so on. Things continually evolve and change. Has Garda training changed to match those changes? I refer specifically to penalty points. Of course, An Garda Síochána gets updated on changes to same. When gardaí were being trained in Templemore...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I have seen the shot of the textbook and it is a very short paragraph. It lacks an awful lot of definition. A paragraph does not say everything but it looked to be quite open-ended. That is what I would always have seen discretion to be. Discretion is open-ended. A referee on a sports field has a degree of discretion. He or she has a rule book and then there is a little bit of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: There is an issue if someone is suspended for three years or more.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I will leave it at that. Finally, we had a national debate on the airwaves this morning about e-scooters. Given that many youngsters now have e-bikes and faster ways of getting around, will An Garda Síochána be seeking an update of the Garda bike fleet to include e-bikes, e-scooters and more modern ways of moving around? When one goes to the US, one sees police officers on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I have a few points to make. I listened with interest to the responses given by Mr. Harris and Ms Hilman to Deputy Kenny. They were very much going down the avenue of discretion. In the context of a situation where a person is pulled over on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, the witnesses started to elaborate on how gardaí have discretion. To build on a point from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I nearly know the answer to my next question but it is worth asking anyway. There is a drive on to recruit new members of the Garda Reserve. Can members of the latter have any role in terms of road policing or is this totally locked out? Is this a role for the rank-and-file gardaí?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I have a question about the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. It relates to road safety. There is not a town in Ireland where the Garda is not investigating a guy who does not go out to work but who has a big car in the driveway, takes luxury holidays and has a nice watch on his wrist. These people are in every community, unfortunately. They are the scourge of society. An Garda...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: That is reassuring, but it is at odds with what is often said in the organisation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I thank the Commissioner. My next question concerns age-old laws that allow horses to be on the roads in Ireland. It is probably a throwback to yesteryear, when many families did not have cars but did have a pony and trap, a donkey or whatever they could afford. It is still nice to see a horse being brought around when appropriately tethered to a cart. It is a nice traditional thing....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: There is a nettle to be grasped. This is a major public safety issue in the context of our roads. I am glad the Garda is being proactive. No one is entitled to own a horse or another animal. I am a farmer - I inherited a farm. I would not have been able to decide, seven years ago, that I wanted horses, cattle or sheep because I did not have an inch of ground to put them on. Yet, some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: Absolutely, and horse welfare. There are many reasons. We are discussing road safety in particular. Deputy Lowry mentioned this earlier. Three or four years ago, call centres moved to civilian staffing. Whether for road safety or other crimes, when people phone that line or when you phone your station to get a car dispatched, you are fed through this phone system. I think it is a centre...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Cathal Crowe: I understand, from an efficiency point of view, that the Garda wants to free people up from manning lines and have gardaí out there policing the streets. I do not mean this in a disparaging way - the people do not have policing smarts. None of the members of the committee is a garda; none of us has Garda training. It is the witnesses and the members of the force who have that...