Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Perhaps the Leas-Chathaoirleach will tell me when I have reached seven and a half minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity for this debate. I support wholeheartedly the appointment of Dermot Gallagher as chair of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. Members today are focusing on policing and on police practices as they reflect on the brutal murder of Constable Stephen Carroll. I join others, as I did previously, in expressing condemnation of the brutal killings both of Constable Carroll and of the two soldiers in Antrim at the weekend. I also wish to express my sympathies to the families of all the men injured and killed. Members already had an extensive discussion on this issue at which there was unanimous condemnation of these murders.

This debate arises from another death, namely, the untimely death of Mr. Justice Kevin Haugh, the former chair of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. I express, as did the Minister of State, my sympathy to Mr. Justice Haugh's family. I knew him, as did every practising barrister, and he was a person of immense warmth and sociability and was a very generous man. His funeral was enormously well attended and a most warm and affectionate portrait of the man was painted at it.

Arising from the death of Mr. Justice Haugh, the need arose to appoint a new chair to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. As the Minister of State noted, it is an entity that was established under the Garda Síochána Act 2005. The commission came into operation on 9 May 2007 and has been in place for less than two years. The figures and reports it has produced, therefore, must be read in a context in which there has been little time for the new procedures to bed down. The commission's predecessor was the most unsatisfactory Garda Síochána Complaints Board. It had been critical of its own shortcomings, arising from the weaknesses in the legislation under which it was established. Consequently, the establishment of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was a welcome development.

When the Garda Síochána Bill was being debated, I, together with many others, contributed to the debates on the Bill within civil society. Concern was expressed, and I was one of those who expressed it, that a tripartite commission was envisaged. Rather than appointing one individual, as had been done in the North, it was thought fit at the time to appoint a three-person commission. It still is the case that this was not a positive move in that in Northern Ireland, especially in the person of Ms Nuala O'Loan, the former police ombudsman, there was a great deal of identification among all sections of the community with the single person identified with receiving police complaints. The effectiveness and success of the police complaints procedure in Northern Ireland was due in no small measure to the presence of one highly identifiable person, that is, the ability of one individual to make decisions and because there was no room for disagreement among the members of the commission with only one person at the top and so on.

That said, it is a measure of the commission's success thus far that it has received so many complaints. It is interesting to make a comparison with, for example, the number of complaints received in 2002 by the Garda Síochána Complaints Board. The latter received 1,405 complaints that year, which then was a record number. However, a much greater number of complaints already have come in to the commission in the short time in which it has been in operation. This is a measure of enhanced public trust and confidence in it, which is welcome. However, as I understand that amendments to the mechanisms of the commission will be put to both Houses shortly, the Minister of State might consider changing the nature of the commission. Has he views in this regard? A former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was highly forthright about the need for a three-person commission. I was not convinced by his arguments at the time and I would be interested to learn whether the Minister of State shares his views on the need for a three-person, rather than a single-person, commission.

At the time when the establishment of the commission was debated, I spoke about the need for accountability, transparency and respect for individual rights in any policing service. Many people looked to the Patten report as a blueprint for what would be a successful model for policing. That report had recommended the idea of an ombudsman and the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment also had been recommending some form of independent oversight for the Garda Síochána for more than ten years before the 2005 Act came into force. The idea of an independent complaints body was not new. It had been sought for a long time and was needed to fulfil our obligations under the Good Friday Agreement. It was a welcome development and has increased greatly the aforementioned three criteria of accountability, transparency and respect for individual rights within the police service. Any comments I offer are by way of being constructive as a new era begins under a new chair of the commission in the person of Dermot Gallagher.

Turning to the figures the Minister of State provided on the work of the commission and the available figures in its report, I note the Minister of State's figures obviously are more up-to-date than those contained in the most recent release from the commission itself. The Minister of State said the commission now has received more than 5,000 complaints, which is interesting. The most recent figures given on the website in January 2009 stated that the commission had received 4,746 complaints in the period from 9 May 2007 to 31 December 2008. That is an impressive level of complaints in a relatively short time of just over 18 months and constitutes a measure of greater public confidence in this new body when compared with the previous entity. However, there is some cause for concern regarding the large numbers of complaints that have been deemed inadmissible. It is worth noting that 1,909 cases were deemed inadmissible and a further 220 files were awaiting an admissibility decision. Consequently, more than one third, albeit less than one half, of the complaints on which an admissibility decision had been made were deemed inadmissible. Perhaps the Minister of State will comment on this figure which jumped out at me.

It also is worth noting — working from the figures I have to hand — that of the cases investigated by the commission, 2,718 complaints were closed by 31 December last. Of those complaints, 37 files were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and there has been one conviction. I do not believe Members should be looking for heads or anything like that and it is good to know there were only 37 cases which the commission considered the DPP should investigate. Moreover, it is good to know that only one conviction has been necessary. However, has the Minister of State a view on the small number of files that have been sent to the DPP? I should also state that 25 further cases were subject to disciplinary action under the Garda Síochána's discipline regulations.

I make these comments to be constructive because when one considers improving policing and public confidence therein, one must ensure the existence of effective and transparent mechanisms for oversight of policing. In recent years in Ireland, there has been some dreadful abuse of police powers by individual members of the Garda Síochána. Given that the majority of gardaí are impeccable and unstinting in the amount and levels of public service they provide, it is important any individuals who seek to bring the name of the Garda Síochána into disrepute should be sanctioned. This is in the interests both of the Garda Síochána as a whole and of individual gardaí who try to do their job under difficult conditions. It is with these interests in mind, as well as the interests of the community at large, that all Members wish to see in place a strong Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. Moreover, all Members wish to ensure the powers of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission are seen to be exercised effectively and that, where necessary, sanctions are imposed. I wish to mention briefly two other matters. First, I refer to the joint policing committees established under the Garda Síochána Act which were important in respect of trying to increase community trust in the force. However, in the future, there should be greater commitment within the Garda to the principle of community or neighbourhood policing. It is a matter that also was highlighted and emphasised in the Patten report as a vital component of any modern police force. While I acknowledge the Garda Commissioner has been forthright about the need for increased community policing, for a long time there was a view within the Garda that community policing was not given sufficient importance and that gardaí who were put to community policing duties too often were moved on too quickly before having gained the trust of their local areas. This is important.

I refer to the issue of the independent policing board. At the time the Garda Síochána Bill was being discussed, a great deal of debate took place about the need for an independent policing board. A previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform took a strong view that there was no need for an independent policing board. In making this case, he distinguished between this State and the North on the basis of the difference in the nature of the policing service in either jurisdiction. I am interested in the Minister of State's view in this regard.

I welcome the appointment of Mr. Dermot Gallagher. As a former civil servant with an immensely distinguished career, he will bring great expertise and authority to the position. I wish him well.