Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. As an amateur student of history, it is significant that the Minister is taking this legislation. I am indebted to Gregory Allen for a number of extracts in my contribution from his book, The Garda Síochána. The Minister's grand uncle, Eoin MacNeill, was the first Minister for Education but he had a central role in the structure and establishment of the Garda. He was involved in agreeing the insignia on the cap badge of the Garda uniform and the name of the force as the civic guards. On the transfer of power it was suggested that the force be referred to as the people's force, which was a banal and nondescript title. The other two giants of that era who were mainly responsible for providing and creating the force as it is today were Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins.

Some of the ideas contained in the Minister's Bill, specifically in relation to the involvement of elected representatives at local level, are not new concepts but go back as far as Grattan's Parliament. During the riots which followed the declaration of independence by Grattan's Parliament in 1782, when there was an ad hoc policing arrangement in the city of Dublin, Grattan made the following comment on the ramshackle system of unpaid parish constables and night-watchmen charged with keeping the peace in Dublin:

If ever a city entertained an odium capable of being ascertained by numerical calculation the city of Dublin entertains such a hatred for this institution. No measure, no expense, no enormity of administration has ever excited discontent so strong or so general as this abominable establishment.

As the abominable establishment was rejected by the population it was replaced, in 1795, by an unarmed civic guard under the supervision of the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of Dublin. Control by the local authority, however, was short lived but the principle of unarmed police in the capital city survived as a benefit of Grattan's Parliament to be enjoyed by the citizens of the modern Irish State. It goes back that far.

The symbolic importance of Grattan's Parliament has not always been acknowledged. It was an all island parliament, despite its limited franchise. I am particularly pleased by these linkages with history and that we now have legislation which updates all the legislation going back to the foundation of the State. This is the most significant legislation relating to the Garda, its management, its structures, its political obligations and the Minister's political obligations. As it is being taken through by the Minister, Deputy McDowell, whose family has had such an important and significant role in the formation of the State, those aspects of this Bill, irrespective of its legislative dimension, should be recorded. I applaud the Minister and I know that he too has a sense of history and is aware of much of what I have said.

One aspect of the policing issue bothers me. All public representatives, in the course of our work, come in contact with the Garda Síochána at all levels. My experience of the Garda through childhood, adulthood and in the political process has been of courteous and diligent men and women of the utmost integrity who have a real vocation for the job they do. I do not know how they sustain such a level of excellence and professionalism in the face of the enormous changes which have taken place in society.

The Minister is aware that the media recently focused on a drug problem in Longford. Gardaí working in the midlands in recent weeks expressed to me a sense of great frustration. They have been able to identify drug pushers and criminal elements who are exploiting young people. They have arrested these people and brought them before the District Court. However, in a significant number of cases these people immediately apply for, what I believe is called, High Court bail. Having been sentenced in the lower courts they engage expensive lawyers, come to Dublin, immediately apply to the High Court and a judge based in the city automatically grants them bail. Surely there is something inherently wrong in this system. I will be grateful if the Minister will clarify his views on this practice and tell us if there is anything he can do, as the political master. I appreciate that this is a judicial matter, that there is a separation of powers and that the Minister's actions may be somewhat limited. In championing due process and taking actions which were not always seen as popular, the Minister has been courageous above and beyond the call of duty. I applaud him for that. Irrespective of political views, the legacy he will leave as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is one of which we will all be proud.

Surely it is wrong that gardaí are being thwarted and frustrated in their efforts. Gardaí are successful in detecting criminals on the ground, due process is being carried through by the judges on the ground and yet a legal loophole allows criminals to abuse the system and be back on the streets and feeding young people with drugs. This loophole is used by other criminals; it is not confined to drug dealers. There is a sense of frustration among Garda officers across the country and I hope the Minister can do something about it.

The Minister's initiative in adding an extra dimension to policing at local level by the establishment of committees which will involve locally elected politicians and the Garda is welcomed by me and my colleagues in public office. This is not a new concept but one which fell into disuse. We are an extremely centralised bureaucracy. This was noted recently when communism and the Stalinist ethos collapsed in the east. In Irish governance decisions are taken by the Executive, proposed to Parliament and passed by Parliament because the Executive Government has a parliamentary majority. We have a very centralised form of Government. The Minister is shedding light into that dark area. This issue should have been addressed decades ago.

This new system has been operated successfully by our neighbours in the United Kingdom. In the United States police officers are publicly elected officials, at all levels up to the Attorney General, the highest law officer in the state. In Ireland, we are in the icy grip of a centralised bureaucracy. The Minister has loosened these bonds and his action will result in better policing.

Greater commitment and loyalty to the work of policing will be generated if ordinary citizens know that a process of redress is being established and that complaints will be investigated. The existing complaints procedures are not incorrect but they are flawed. The Minister has made that point repeatedly and I will not labour it.

The public dimension the Minister has added to this legislation is vital. I hope local authorities will grasp this opportunity and involve themselves in policing, now that the guidelines have been placed on a statutory footing. This is not an opportunity for local politicians to have a go at the gardaí or to grandstand in the local media. I hope there will be a sense of partnership, as in the philosophy which guided the founding fathers of this State.

The Prendeville committee of 1922, anticipating the exemplary role the Garda Síochána was to play in the life of the nation, said the following:

Above all, the recruit had to be taught that he was the servant and not the master of the people. He must also be made fully to understand that he is now enforcing laws made by his own countrymen, who have the welfare of their country at heart and that the utmost loyalty, obedience and devotion to duty will be demanded.

The Garda Síochána has responded magnificently to that challenge during the past 80 years and I hope that those who will now be given the task of entering a partnership at local level will rise similarly to the challenge. I commend the legislation to the House.