John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

I am in favour of the proposal for a volunteer force and that it should have exactly the same powers, responsibilities and immunities as the Garda Síochána. A second class force could bring the whole system into disrepute. The point has been well made about the need to root the Garda Síochána in the community and to have its members living in the community. The volunteers would be ideally suited in this regard. They can be the eyes and ears of the members in the patrol cars. The volunteers are the people on the ground who know what is going on and they can fulfil a valuable function.

The point was made about An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil. Those of us who were members of the force, such as the Minister and I, know that the training alone was of great benefit, apart from anything we did. We learned to handle firearms, discipline and even square-bashing. It could be mischievously said that the reason people in boarding schools joined was to acquire a greatcoat that could be put on the bed at night to keep them warm but that is a separate issue.

I agree with the point made about retired members of the Garda Síochána who have a great talent and knowledge. A local garda of my acquaintance was very expert in the drugs area and had visited all the local schools and was well known to the young people. When he retired all that expertise was lost and it was not really replaced. I made approaches to the local authority to find some way of incorporating him into the local authority system in order to retain his expertise. A vehicle should be available for harnessing the knowledge such people acquire over a lifetime in the event that they wish to continue to be active and involved, as opposed to confining their time to fishing and so on.

I am a little confused regarding Senator Cummins's views on training given that section 14(2) states: "A person is not eligible to be appointed as a volunteer member unless he or she has completed the prescribed training." As such, training appears to be covered.