Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and say, as my colleague has already indicated, that Fianna Fáil is supporting this Private Members' motion. However, we have severe criticisms of the manner in which the Government has been addressing the various deficiencies in the criminal justice system.

One of the issues that has attracted media attention in recent days is the continuing haemorrhaging of senior police officers at a time when the Garda is under severe scrutiny. A newspaper has suggested today that Assistant Commissioner Tony Quilter, a senior officer of many years' standing, a man of tremendous integrity and great expertise, is indicating that he is taking retirement from the force to take up an alternative police security job. That was essentially the only reference I had to it. I would be grateful if the Minister would address this issue. I understand the process involved in the appointment of a new Commissioner and I have to say the Acting Commissioner is doing an excellent job. She has restored a lot of morale to the Garda force. It is a matter of great concern that people in senior positions are being lost.

It is not just the individuals themselves, but their expertise that is being lost. In his contribution on the Order of Business yesterday, Senator Whelan of the Labour Party group referred to the bail system in this country. In effect, he was talking about the revolving door issue. After the Order of Business I indicated to him that there was a referendum in 1996 that was supposed to end the revolving door system. The Leader, Senator Cummins, referred to it also. It was during the time of the rainbow coalition when the former Deputy, Nora Owen, was Minister for Justice. I remember there was a great deal of controversy surrounding what seemed to be a very flexible system where people were going out on bail and were committing crimes. One has only to look at the papers every day to find the number of people who are recidivists, as they are called, and the percentage is very high at around 63%. It is an issue the Minister of State might like to address. After all, the constitutional referendum was supposed to end the system of revolving door bailing. Is there some deficiency within the criminal justice system that is allowing this to continue?

I understand and appreciate that, constitutionally, judges have the ultimate right to pass sentence. I am very aware of the separation of powers in this country and I do not in any way wish to infringe on the right of the Judiciary to make its decisions in this regard. It is, none the less, a matter of grave public concern. One might refer to the tragic circumstances that resulted in the death of an innocent person on the motorway near Kildare a few weeks ago. There were five robbers in a car that was being pursued by the Garda. Almost all were in their late teens, with the eldest of them 20 or 21, and again it seems the person who was driving the car had numerous previous convictions. I am not sure whether he was out on bail for one of them at the time.

I understand fully and appreciate the difficulties facing justice departments in all jurisdictions. I know the Garda is doing the very best it can in the circumstances. There is ongoing criticism, however, of what seems to have been a drift away from policing on the ground over the past decade or two. I would include previous Administrations in that culture. It was thought that putting gardaí into cars would be more efficient. They were taken off the beat and it was not required that they actually live in the areas they police.

As a child, I remember distinctly, in a small town, Drumshanbo in County Leitrim, we had a sergeant and four gardaí. Two of them religiously patrolled the town of Drumshanbo morning and evening, and when they were not patrolling they would stand in a pivotal place in the town where there were a lot of people and cars travelling by. I am convinced that contributed to the low crime rate in our country during that period. What I am applying to Drumshanbo can equally apply to every other town and village in the country.

I do not know whether it has gone too far to change that, but any Government would be doing a great service to the public if it could roll back the culture of reducing garda numbers, closing rural stations and putting gardaí into cars which operate out of a Garda station 10, 15 or 20 miles away. I do not believe we will ever grapple with the crime issue in this country, which results in an overloading of the jail system, if we do not go back to some form of community policing. Any Government that would go down that road would generate a very positive response from the public. I am not alone in this and I know it is not an original thought, but I believe this report is an opportunity to highlight the issue.

I commend the justice committee on the report it has published. I commend Senator Bacik on highlighting this important issue of crime, which is not discussed often enough in these Houses, even though it is a daily diet in the red tops in particular. Crime stories sometimes engender fear in the public, and while the story itself may be well-founded, the suggestion that there is wholesale crime in certain categories may not be. This suggestion is putting the fear of God into elderly people in particular who are living alone. There is an ongoing responsibility on Government to ensure the priority is the protection of citizens, and anything that goes towards improving a somewhat ramshackle criminal justice and jail system, as outlined in this report, is to be welcomed.