Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for their contributions to the debate today and Senator Martin Conway and the Fine Gael group for tabling this motion. I will also refer to some of the points made in the amendments. I will revert to Senator Bradford in regard to the Garda Reserve individually and to members who have raised individual points to which I am not in a position to respond at this point in time.

Like many Senators here I have been a member of a JPC. It seems from what the Senators are saying that there is very varied experience in regard to them. Senators will be interested to hear the outcome of the review we did. A point made in the review is that we do not have national consistency in the approach. While we always want to allow for some local variation, that is one of the points that emerged. It does give us an opportunity to discuss these important local structures. I believe they are important as do most of the Senators who have spoken. I am glad to support the motion as it has been laid out.

It might be helpful if I went through what has been happening recently in regard to JPCs and the recommendations from the review. As stated by Senator Conway, the JPCs arise from the Garda Síochána Act 2005. One of the points in the motion is that it lays a lot of emphasis on collaboration and co-operation. That is very much what we are trying to promote as standard practice in the JPCs. That is necessary if they are to be successful. We carried out a review in 2012 and published new guidelines in August of this year on how the JPCs should operate. I hope that as they get up and running now, following the local elections, these guidelines will be helpful. This came from a programme for Government commitment which we had made that we would review community partnerships and collaborative engagement between JPCs and the community. We do have to use these local structures to best effect.

In terms of the review, it was conducted with the Department of the Environment, community and Local Government. There was a questionnaire, a call for consultation and 60 submissions received. Significant work has been done in ascertaining the experience of people who were on JPCs and what the local communities believe about them. We did find - as found in the House today - that there was considerable support for JPCs but it is also fair to say the review indicated they were operating unevenly and were more effective in some areas.

We want to address that in a pragmatic way. We do not want to inhibit local initiative. That is an important consideration. One of the strongest themes was the need to emphasise a considered and collaborative approach. The cross-cutting nature of JPCs was recognised - the motion recognises it also - and how they can benefit the sort of collaboration in the interests of what we all want to see, which is the safety and security of the local community.

There is a need for JPCs to set out strategic plans. They must also be linked to the objectives of the Garda annual policing plan. That is a good idea, relevant for the area but also relevant to local authority plans. At present, local authorities and the newly-established local and community development committees are in the process of developing six-year local economic and community plans. The JPCs are also going to be required to have those six-year strategic plans, which I think is a good idea, but they do need to be looked at by way of an annual report. Senator Ó Clochartaigh has suggested some amendments, but I think the new guidelines actually meet quite a lot of the recommendations that were made in the amendment to the motion. The guidelines require a strategic plan and collaboration. There will be an annual report, and people can be invited into the JPCs either as observers or as guests. The Senator asked why public representatives cannot be represented on both JPCs in his area. I think this would be impractical in terms of numbers. In my own area, people took turns to be on the joint policing committees in order not to have huge numbers attending at any one time. There is nothing to stop any Oireachtas Member from attending, and I think that most JPCs do allow contributions, as the Senator has stated.

The guidelines now stipulate that the annual report must outline what actions the JPCs have taken in a given year to meet what they have laid out in the strategic plan. This is about monitoring and evaluation and making sure that they are more effective. It is good to lay out a six-year action plan, but it is also necessary to report annually on what has actually been achieved in terms of the priorities that were set out.

The JPCs are a mechanism to allow people to have more engagement with the Garda Síochána. In the guidelines we have allowed for an increased number of community representatives. We have also emphasised the importance of diversity so that the different community groups, business representatives, immigrant communities and Travellers are represented at the JPCs. It is important that they respect diversity and make sure that there is the kind of representation that will reach out to groups that are sometimes quite marginalised and whose members may feel quite separate and less included in local policing plans. I would have to say, however, that gardaí are doing a lot of work on integration and involving migrant communities in their work. They have set up a specific office to do that.

In looking at the guidelines, I felt it was important that there be a fair degree of flexibility suited to local circumstances. We have emphasised in the guidelines that we do not want to over formalise these committees, but we do want to ensure that there is a certain standard that is met throughout the country in terms of how the JPCs go about their business.

We have focused on the importance of community policing, and there are lots of different ways in which that can be done. We have a very good tradition of community policing in this country but it can be enhanced. The small areas policing pilot project was discussed in the Seanad. That is important, as we are seeing in the Dublin metropolitan region and the north inner city in particular. The first part of the Fianna Fáil amendment calls for a dedicated public order unit in Dublin city centre. I have had discussions with the Garda Commissioner already about policing in the city centre. The small areas policing pilot project, which has been developed in the north inner city, is giving a particular focus to that kind of community activity. This is needed so that all of the different players meet together. There is, of course, also the forum, where representatives of the police, the business community and Dublin City Council are meeting to work out the best possible approaches to tackling some of the issues which we see in inner cities. We are evaluating the outcome of that pilot project.

The Garda has a very proactive approach to developing partnerships with local communities. This has been very successful in the United States and in the UK and I would like see this being developed further in this country. We do of course have the community alert scheme, which is the partnership between the Garda Síochána, Muintir na Tíre and local communities. It is remarkable to consider that there are 1,300 local groups throughout the country, and we have 2,500 neighbourhood watch programmes. Since the Garda set up the new text alert scheme, 450 text alert groups have been set up around the country involving 80,000 people. I would like to take up the point that Senator Bradford made in relation to this, namely, that having safe communities is about a lot of different elements working together. It is about the Garda, but it is also about how the community responds. Communities are working to develop greater safety, alerting gardaí to what is happening and working with residents' associations and neighbourhood watch groups. Every Senator here knows how important the local neighbourhood watch programmes are. I see great potential for this text alert scheme to develop further.

One of the things I would like to see as a result of yesterday's budget is gardaí having access to better technology. They should have the resources and the proper fleet to be available in communities. They should also have the most advanced mobile phone technology in order to have very quick contact back and forth to base and with their colleagues.

I believe that some of the announcements that we made yesterday addressed the issues in the Fianna Fáil amendment in particular. It is very important that we have seen an increase for the Department of Justice and Equality in the budget for the first time year on year since 2008. That is the reality of the situation that gardaí were facing. Despite the needs that had been outlined, we have seen that the Department's budget was not increased between 2008 and 2011. We are seeing it being increased right now by €141 million. We are seeing a 68% increase in capital funding, 300 recruits going into Templemore with another 100 on 1 December and another 100 on 1 January. We are seeing a commitment to monitor the precise force that will be needed throughout the year as we see what the scale of retirements is. We are freeing up 75 gardaí for front-line duties as a result of the civilianisation initiative in Dublin Airport and a further 75 as a result of the changes to Border management and visa issues throughout the country. We are effectively ensuring that over the coming year we will have 450 front-line gardaí made available through new recruits and through the civilianisation programme which we are undertaking. That is very significant by any judgment, particularly in terms of the recent history in relation to the budget in this area.

However, I am in no way complacent. We owe it to our citizens to ensure their absolute safety and that is why I am pleased we are able to provide 400 new cars as well. As a Government over the last years, in contrast to previous years, we have ensured that there is a very significant budget for the replacement of Garda vehicles. A number of Senators have asked about this. It is the ongoing replacement of an older fleet. We would like to get to a point where a reasonable percentage of the fleet would be replaced every year and that the budget would be there and available for that. As I have said, we made a very good start yesterday with the €11 million that was announced. That will obviously need to be ongoing.

To address some of the issues in the amendment, the Department did not suffer from a reduction in resources. The only change was the one I outlined to Senator Ó Clochartaigh earlier, which is that the Vote for the new equality commission became an independent Vote of €6 million. Other than that, we saw the budget either increasing or being maintained in all of the Department's other areas.

We saw an increase of €44 million for the Garda pay budget, which will ensure we have resources for the numbers referenced, namely, 13,000 gardaí and 1,980 civilians, in the budget allocation for the Department of Justice and Equality in the context of the expenditure report. Clearly, it is important that we also examine reform. The reform initiatives, which include the establishment of the new police authority and the recruitment, through open competition, of the new Garda Commissioner, are very important. The Garda is constantly examining how it needs to reform its operations, whether that be, as pointed out by some Senators, related to the precise numbers that should be allocated to particular geographical areas, which needs continual monitoring in terms of population change, the demands in an area, whether it be urban or rural, and the varying policing demands made in the area.

The density of Garda stations in this country is still higher than in other countries, but I have no intention to close any further Garda stations. It is important we continually evaluate how the service is being provided and that we demand the highest standards. The Garda Inspectorate reports on a range of issues in an ongoing way. We saw the report recently from it on the penalty points situation. The work of the Garda Inspectorate is very important in ensuring we have the right standards available and that they are continually monitored in terms of delivering an effective policing service.

I thank Senators for their contributions. I note of the varying points they have made and I will respond individually to some Senators.