Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

My father-in-law - God rest him - was a rural garda for many years and my wife was born in a Garda station, along with many of her brothers and sisters. The day is gone when a garda lived in a station, working for almost 24 hours a day, 365 days in the year. That was the way policing worked in this country but we have moved on. I stand to be corrected but I do not believe a garda lives in any station in the country. Some 25 or 30 years ago, most Garda stations had the garda and his family living on the premises. At the time it was the way forward as there were no personal telephones. People had to sign on for the dole in a Garda station but that practice is also gone. Passport documents and other forms can now be accessed on the Internet or in local post offices, and having a Garda station open 12 hours a day in this day and age is ridiculous. It is causing members of the Garda force to park their vehicles at a Garda station for several hours, precluding its use elsewhere.

We must move on and there must be a readjustment in this country. An old man spoke to me recently about the cuts and changes to the public service and aspects of private business. He told me we lived in the old world but we now have a new world and must move on in it. We must embrace that idea. There are Neanderthals in various parties who want to hang on to the past and tell people how great it used to be and everything was done much better. The past is a different country and it was populated by criminals as well. Although we still have criminals, statistics indicate that crime rates are decreasing overall. There may be increases in certain areas but these are mainly in fraud or computer hacking, and such crimes cannot be fought from a Garda station. The gardaí know that. I have spoken to many gardaí who tell me they would prefer to have an extra garda or car in the area than have a building maintained. The maintenance of a Garda station in a rural area does not add much.

There has been an argument that gardaí suffered discrimination in the negotiation of an extension to the Croke Park agreement, along with other front-line workers. The previous Government cut Garda pay twice without consultation, so at least this Government sat down with union representatives. The unions which stayed in the negotiations will put the agreement before their members and the unions which stayed out want to play it both ways. They are arguing that they are standing up for workers by not participating in the talks but if the agreement is approved, the same unions will want to be part of it.

No party should use the behaviour of gardaí in the Croke Park agreement negotiations as an argument, as such bodies working for the security of the State should not have an opinion of the Government. When a Garda authority argues that the Government is not doing something right, it is a dangerous day for everybody. It is very dangerous to mix politics and the security of the country and that day should be well gone. I ask Members on the other side to reflect on the work done by gardaí, many of whom have given a lifetime to maintaining security. Some help out in retirement by advising younger gardaí on policing. Such people play an integral role, which should be recognised.

When Fianna Fáil indicates it has no confidence in the Minister, it is a political point. Sinn Féin has already crossed a line in telling us one thing in Donegal and another in Tyrone. The party has called for every Garda station in Donegal to be maintained but in Tyrone, Derry and Fermanagh, it argues that all the stations must be closed because they are not being used. Fianna Fáil should not go down the same route, as it has more credibility. The rural Garda station issue is emotive but it would be no different if we set up a police force today. The former RIC stations were set up for a different type of country and a world populated by landlords and big landowners who used those stations to protect their land. We must modernise the police force in the country and although the way forward may not be easy at the start, in future there will be a better police force and improved security system. We will match countries like the UK and New Zealand, which is similar to Ireland in population and geography.

New Zealand uses community policing. Joint policing committees in this country must be developed and given more power. The proof of this Government's policy will be seen in two or three years, when we will see how crime levels are affected. I would rather know that a patrol car is circling the area routinely than have criminals know that a garda is in the local station from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. When the cat is away, the mouse will play.

I commend the Leader and the Government parties for rebutting the motion from Fianna Fáil. It is a political argument. I know Fianna Fáil is organising a meeting tomorrow night in Letterkenny about the Garda issue but it did not have such meetings three or four years ago, when the party was part of the Government. It had no plans then except to cut Garda pay, reduce the number of stations and decrease the budget. The party should be honest with the people and tell us its solutions. It should not say it would do things differently as we know it would not. The party has been populist in the past but I ask it not to be populist with a sensitive issue like security.