Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the Minister for her contribution, which was, as always, thorough and detailed and which provided this House with the respect it deserves. I also join with the rest of my colleagues in wishing the Minister well in a difficult time and in welcoming our old colleague and friend, the Minister of State, who is doing an exceptional job and who has been in office for almost a year. I believe he has gone from having reasonable Irish to fluent Irish so an-mhaith, a chara.

This legislation is ground-breaking. I welcome Senator Mooney's general support. His reservations are important and well-founded. I urge the Minister to take his reservations on board on Committee Stage because we want this Bill to be enacted with the support of all Members of the House. I have not heard Senator Ó Clochartaigh's views on it yet but I have no doubt that they will be constructive as the Senator is always constructive in his criticism and praise.

I am just back from a visit to Portugal with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The visit looked at how Portugal has dealt with the decriminalisation of the possession of soft drugs. What Portugal has done is very impressive and the results speak for themselves. It has given me a greater understanding of the issue and shown me what is possibly a new and alternative way of doing business. We need to look at that given the fact that 25% of court time in this country is taken up with people charged with the possession of soft drugs. A young man of 18 or 19 who is caught with a small quantity of cannabis or another of these dreadful things may, in 20 years' time when he is trying to do something having moved on with his career, finds that he has a criminal record because he was caught and brought to court for possessing a small quantity of soft drugs. We need to look at how we deal with these matters. The 25% of court time spent on this issue could be spent on better things.

As part of the trip to Portugal, I was most struck by a visit to the headquarters of the Portuguese police authority - their equivalent of Phoenix Park. They have spent €187 million in recent times building a state-of-the-art facility as the headquarters for their police force.Even though the country required bailouts, it deemed the position the police held in society as being of such significance that it warranted the investment, difficult and all as times were. Even pre-1974 when the country was a dictatorship, the police were highly respected and had the confidence of the community. That has remained the case to this day. Although all members of the police carry guns, there have been only six shootings in ten years, one of which was fatal.

I would like to think our police force would receive that type of support. Communities throughout the country have a huge regard for An Garda Síochána. The fact that the police force is unarmed is a significant cultural aspect of the Garda Síochána, in that it has not been found necessary for all police to be armed. We would like that to continue but we need to live in the real world. We live in a violent period in world history. We have seen gun crime in Dublin get out of control. Thankfully, the issue in Limerick has been dealt with very successfully. The Bill is an incremental first step in the right direction to constitute the police force properly and in a professional way. The approach to date has been ad hoc, and while the majority of members involved did a superb job, proper control mechanisms were not in place and there was not a proper delineation between the Government and the police force. If nothing else, the structures in place were blurred. The enactment of the Bill should eliminate any blurriness, bring about a crystallisation of what the relationship should be, and ensure it is carried out in a much more professional and businesslike manner.

We have seen what has been proposed in the legislation in terms of the appointment of superintendents and deputy commissioners, for example. We have also heard from the Minister what will be involved in removing such people from their positions and the role of the Government. All such terms are clearly identified in the legislation. One will have a different narrative depending on one's position and how one views the debacle we have seen within An Garda Síochána and its relationship with the Government in recent years. Some call it misinformation and others refer to a misunderstanding, but what will emerge as a result will be far better than what we have had. Perhaps we would not see reform of this scale as quickly if it were not for what has happened. To her credit, since the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, came to office, to facilitate her having a total focus on justice both in terms of the Department and the introduction of legislation on An Garda Síochána, the defence element of the portfolio was taken over by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Much effort has gone into introducing the Bill in terms of research and wide consultation.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality has made its views known. While not all the views of the committee were taken on board, a majority of them have been accepted. I am very happy with the legislation, but like much legislation, it is evolving. In ten years time the Garda Síochána will have other demands that we could not even imagine today. Who would have thought ten years ago that social media would play such a significant role in society? We saw how social media were used in the situation in Scotland when the poor, unfortunate Irish girl lost her life. We have seen other forces internationally engage with social media. The upgrade of the IT systems in Garda headquarters currently reflects the new reality. I commend the Minister on having the initiative to make significant resources available to the Garda to set up a new IT unit. It is ridiculous that one could not e-mail a Garda station in this country but now the Garda is working on that. ICT is a cornerstone of any operation. The PULSE system was groundbreaking technology at the time of its introduction, but unfortunately the system has not been upgraded because the money was not available to fund the development of the ICT system.

The Minister has done phenomenal work but Commissioner O’Sullivan has hit the ground running in terms of bringing back the type of regard and respect we all want the Garda Síochána to have in the wider community. I compliment both ladies on what they have done in the past 12 months, which has been most impressive. This country has been well served by them and will be well served with the Garda authority and An Garda Síochána.