Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am against the idea of an independent police authority in Ireland. It is a proposal to which the Labour Party is deeply attached. On Second Stage on 11 March this year, I set out in general terms the reasons for my objection. There would not be much point in rehearsing everything I said on that occasion.

Unlike the PSNI, the Garda Síochána is not a regional constabulary established within a sovereign state. It is the national police force of Ireland and has the functions the British Government is providing in its creation of an FBI for Britain. The Garda is also our MI5 and MI6. With the enactment of this statute, the Garda will be a force in respect of which there will be significant accountability measures, not least of which shall be the requirement for the Commissioner to come to the House and be accountable to committees, including the Committee of Public Accounts, for the manner in which he or she discharges his or her functions. The provision constitutes a significant, new layer of accountability on top of what already exists.

The model used in Northern Ireland and among regional English constabularies is quite political. Places on the police board in Northern Ireland are, in part, handed out on d'Honte principles to political parties. We must ask if we want a police authority which is broadly political in complexion. Is it a good idea to have nominees of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil on the police board? Is that something people really want? It is by no means self-evident to me that such a board would represent an improvement. The Government has the right to hire and fire the Garda Commissioner and his deputies, which creates a very immediate accountability mechanism. Under certain circumstances, the sovereign Government of this independent State can tell the Commissioner his or her services are no longer required. While there are legal and stronger limitations under the Bill concerning the exercise of that power, it makes it very clear that in the last analysis it is the Government of the people of Ireland which calls the shots in the context of policing in the State.

Under the 1924 Act, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is the person who is responsible politically to the Dáil for the execution of the police function in the State. What would happen if the police body was like, as I said before, the RTE authority, indifferent in the way it carried out its work, incapable of bringing about reform and in place for five years? Who would take the rap? Sometimes, some of us in the Houses, whether in Opposition or Government, become frustrated by media treatment of particular issues. It makes one want to lift the phone. Whatever accountability one has, one must admit that the RTE authority has very little influence over how fairly or unfairly one is treated. By contrast, it has to be said that the holder of my office is brought before the Houses, answers questions, is summoned before committees and, ultimately, can face a motion of no confidence in the Houses of the Oireachtas and must defend his or her decisions on policing. That is a better degree of accountability than is to be found with independent police board models put in place.

I am not saying the matter is beyond argument but the Northern Ireland model is not something that attracts me. It is a politicised model, for obvious reasons, that was necessary to bring into the whole policing function democratically elected politicians and to put party representatives onto the policing board. I do not believe management of policing in Ireland requires a cross-party consensus as to how it is done or explicit recognition of party political issues in the composition of a board.

The Labour Party has taken the view that what is good for Northern Ireland is good for the Republic and that the Patten report should be transposed lock, stock and barrel south of the Border, but we are dealing with something different here. We are dealing with a national police force, an intelligence service, a security service and a society in which it is not necessary for Fine Gael and Labour Party people to be involved in the policing function when Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats are in office. Otherwise, society's support for the police will split in two.

I note, and it has been evident here today, that members of the Opposition bent over backwards in asserting their total support for the policing function, which is always a feature of Irish politics. They always tell the poor Minister of the day that he or she is not being sufficiently supportive of the police service in one shape or another.