Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Irish society has been shocked by the treatment of the McBrearty family. I support the comments made about Senator Higgins and Deputy Howlin and on how they stuck their necks out when it was not popular to do so. It appears that police forces throughout the world at times take on the characteristics of those they are investigating. Consider the police force in Britain which put the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six in prison. Corruption, deviousness and twisting of the truth put Irish people in prison. There was also the failure of the Garda to investigate the Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

There was shock when we heard that four members of the Garda in Donegal were being sent to Dublin. I heard Ms McGlinchey ask on the radio why the communities in Dublin deserved to have these people imposed on them. However, we later discovered that these gardaí will be employed at desk jobs, that a file is being sent to the Director for Public Prosecutions and that they will be investigated. The law will take its course.

In his speech the Minister of State referred to the ombudsman. In the House one year ago, in the presence of the Minister, Deputy McDowell, I told of how I witnessed the maltreatment by three gardaí of an innocent Irish person on a train from Waterford. I made a complaint to the Garda Complaints Board but it was swept under the carpet. There was nothing I could do as my hands were tied. However, I know the ombudsman commission will work. To qualify that comment, I am totally opposed to a three-person commission, even with a chairman. We have one Director of Public Prosecutions, one Attorney General and one Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

We talked in the House about culture, leadership and vision. Leadership must come from top; it is identified in one person. When one sees leadership, one sees it in one human being. In Northern Ireland, Ms O'Loan stands out as a person responsible for fair treatment. Even when witnesses were afraid to go to the police in the McCartney case, the McCartney sisters were encouraged to meet Ms O'Loan. I am not convinced by the reasons put forward by the Minister, Deputy McDowell, for justifying the three-person commission or the introduction of a chairman. I would like one person to be appointed.

The Minister, Deputy McDowell, has the fire, passion and driving force to bring about a metamorphosis in the Garda Síochána. While I do not want to say he has many bad points, he has the driving power to achieve that. During the discussions last year, it was said in the House that reform of the Garda Síochána was probably the most significant legislative proposal to have happened in our lifetime or the history of the State.

As my Seanad colleagues know, in the past year I have been working on a new approach to child care. I have also commenced work on a new approach to aging, a matter on which I will let the House know more anon. During my investigations on the ground on the new approach to aging, I encountered community gardaí doing extraordinary work to look after people in their local communities. Two weeks ago gardaí from Kilmainham and Kevin Street stations in Dublin brought 260 older members of the community from Dublin 8 and Dublin 11 to Fatima. Gardaí from those stations bring older people from that area on trips five times a year. The chief superintendent I spoke to told me that because of the trips one old man told him: "You are keeping me alive. The gardaí are keeping me alive." Many of the old people involved are poor and have little to look forward to except the trips organised by the community gardaí. Just as every priest is not an abuser and every Fianna Fáil member is not a crook or corrupt, every garda is not a liar.

Although I did not hear it first hand or read it for myself, I understand one of my coalition colleagues stated earlier that Fianna Fáil did not have values, or something like that, which is a matter I want to investigate further.