Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. It is good to see her and I thank her for coming in to take what is obviously a Government motion on joint policing committees.

As we all will agree from our experience in each of our areas, I certainly agree with the establishment of the JPCs and the reason that they were established. While some of the changes being proposed are welcome, the joint policing committees can be more efficient. We also must see how they fit in. For example, I am on the Fingal committee. I am aware from representatives in the north inner city where the joint policing committee works well. In other areas, it does not work as well. We need to focus on it to ensure that there is community buy-in.

We used the opportunity of this Government motion to highlight some of the issues that arise, specifically in Dublin. Being Dublin spokesperson and being from Dublin, I do not mind being selfish about that aspect of it. I have had a lot of interaction in my area, which is the R district. Not to go completely off the point, I would like to get some idea. While there has been acknowledgement of the welcome recruitment of additional gardaí, the force numbers are coming down, from a peak of 14,500 to 12,800 or 12,900. I am sure Deputy Fitzgerald, as Minister, receives regular comments and complaints on the resourcing of the men and women in the Garda who find it increasingly difficult to do their job. One area at which the Acting Commissioner should look - I accept that this would be an operational matter - is that there are far too many instances, for example, in an area like Swords, which is the capital town of Fingal, where there would be one Garda car servicing an area of over 120,000 people, where there would be situations in which there is one garda in a unit, where cars cannot be deployed and where response times are slow because of the lack of gardaí and the lack of physical resources.

Has the Minister asked her Department to provide an update on the urban and rural stations that were closed, how gardaí are managing those closures and how that impacts on the ground? There were many other stations, such as in Malahide and Howth, that were downgraded to part-time stations which close at 9 p.m. I would hope, as the economy improves, that the Government would prioritise the justice area, certainly, the policing area. However, what we find on the ground, regardless of what figures are produced, is that burglaries and petty crime are up, and people in areas that have had their stations either downgraded or closed know that such is the case.

If one telephones Malahide Garda station after 9 p.m., the call is transferred to Coolock where gardaí who have to reroute it back to Malahide gardaí to respond, do not have the local knowledge. That is not the way we should be going about this. I would be particularly interested to find out what the Minister's plans are in that regard. Is she open to reviewing the closures with a view to reopening some of those stations? Is she open to putting back on a full-time footing those stations that have been downgraded to part time? What is really important, in the case of the stations that close at 9 p.m., is that the Government gives a firm commitment, which I asked of the Minister's predecessor, that these stations would not be closed and this is not the beginning of a process of closure of those stations. I asked the previous Minister, Deputy Shatter, about this on a number of occasions when he came to the Seanad and I was never able to elicit a direct response in that regard. It would be important at least that the Government gives a firm commitment that the stations that are downgraded to part-time stations are not on the road to full closure.

When one looks at instances in the Probation Service in matters such as outstanding bench warrants - there are over 10,000 out on probation - these are areas on which the Government must concentrate. People need confidence in their police force, but the police force needs to have confidence in the Government in so far as gardaí will be given the tools to do their job. As the Minister and every Member of this House will be aware, the issue of morale in the Garda is a serious one. Morale is still very low in the Garda. Over successive Governments, gardaí have suffered quite excessive cuts to their pay and overtime, and then there is the resourcing issue. As I mentioned earlier, some stations cannot send a car to respond because there are not enough gardaí in the station and there are not enough gardaí in the unit. I am particularly interested to hear the Minister's views on those matters.

I welcome some of the changes being proposed with regard to the joint policing committees but these committees will not solve our policing issue. If we put more effort and emphasis into fully resourcing gardaí and giving them the tools to do their job, we would be in a much better position.