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

I thank Senators for their contributions to this debate. I will address the issue of Garda pay, on which the House focused, first. We want to negotiate and use every opportunity possible to deal with the concerns that have been raised by the GRA and AGSI. In a ballot of AGSI members several weeks ago, the ratio was 70:30 in favour of accepting the work done by officials on the Lansdowne Road agreement. That matter was agreed two weeks ago. There were areas of consensus and progress was made, but when the GRA team reverted to its executive, the executive expressed a range of concerns and the association was not in a position to go further with the agreement. I regret that. I met the GRA recently to discuss its concerns. It has stated it wants to continue working with us on how to chart a path forward. This is in the context of the 285,000 public sector workers who have accepted the Lansdowne Road agreement and the 21 unions that have worked with the Government on unwinding the FEMPI legislation. Everyone knows how important it is that we manage the economy well. We are reaching out to address people's concerns as much as possible, but there are constraints. It would not be realistic of me to claim otherwise.

I take the point made by many Senators regarding the important role An Garda Síochána plays in defending citizens against criminal elements. Gardaí are on the front line. As Senator Conway mentioned, Tuesday was the anniversary of the death of Garda Tony Golden, who was doing his job and responding to a call. My thoughts this week are with his family: Nicole and his very young children. It was an appalling tragedy and act of criminality. We must be conscious that gardaí put their lives on the line.

Senator Bacik asked about mechanisms. After the European Confederation of Police, EuroCOP, found that the State was in breach of certain aspects of the charter, I referred its finding to the review that was then under way in the context of the Haddington Road agreement. There was a change in personnel and the process under Mr. Ray McGee, who had done some of the work, did not continue, but Mr. John Horgan is now working with the Garda to finalise the review. I expect it will be finalised by the end of December. We are agreeable in principle to the Garda associations having like access as other public sector representative bodies to future pay determination mechanisms and statutory dispute resolutions, for example, being able to use the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. This will be helpful. I take the point that being outside of the Haddington Road agreement process was not helpful. I hope the progress we can make through the review will chart a roadmap towards having access to these mechanisms.

Senator Clifford-Lee asked about the public sector pay commission. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, will table recommendations on the establishment of that commission in the coming weeks. I hope it will be established early in the new year. The timeframe for the body's first report has been brought forward to the middle of the year. Senators referred to public sector unions and workers and I hope the commission will be a useful mechanism for examining contrasts in public sector and private sector pay and giving a voice to the various stakeholders.

A number of Senators mentioned the anger within the Garda. As I have acknowledged, gardaí are like many workers, in that they have been through a difficult period. There were high levels of overtime, but overtime was stopped, as was recruitment, and there was no investment for a period. All of this has impacted on morale, as have the ongoing pay issues. Thankfully, the economy can now support investment. The previous Government restarted that investment, which I am continuing. I hope that this will make a difference to morale. I accept that pay issues are front and centre and we will do everything possible to address them.

Various options are available as regards protected disclosures. I have taken a decision on how the two most recent disclosures should be handled. For the various whistleblower complaints that have crossed my desk and that of GSOC, there is also the option of a GSOC investigation. I do not want to do anything that would interfere with GSOC's investigations and it is important that they proceed at GSOC's pace.

As part of the agreement, there was a commitment to restore rent allowance to the 700 or 800 gardaí affected. I would be concerned by any irregularity in audits and accounting at Templemore. The Garda Commissioner is Templemore's Accounting Officer. Some of the issues are historical, but they will undoubtedly be addressed and appropriate action will be taken. It was Templemore's own audit that found the difficulties.

Turning to judicial appointments, we have received some advice and are seeking more on this matter. Complex legal and constitutional issues are involved. Senator McDowell has written about them and Senator Boyhan has raised a number of concerns. The roles of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, JAAB, and the Government are distinctive. As I have often stated, neither this Government nor its predecessor ever went outside JAAB's recommendations. That is important. We have an appointments process, but it is in need of change. We will have interesting discussions on the format and type of change that is necessary, but we all agree on some of the key principles - appointments on merit and maintaining the strong constitutional issues that arise in this regard. Senator Boyhan made suggestions concerning the scope that is available to the Government. The advice that I have received agrees with him in this respect.Deputy O'Callaghan does have a Bill which I will certainly examine very carefully and see what progress we can make because it is a priority for the Government, as is the judicial council Bill.

I again recognise what has been said about delays in the past. Delays were caused by a whole variety of factors and we are committed to dealing with this issue. A lot of work has been done on that Bill and it will be published this term. Both pieces of legislation are on the A list and we are only putting on the A list those Bills that will be published. It is not like in the past where there was a very long list of A Bills. The last time we reached ten out of the 11 pieces of legislation on the A list. It is the absolute intention that those Bills will be published this term and as much progress as possible made on them.

No doubt we will have interesting discussions as to whether there should be a lay majority or a legal majority. There will be different points of view on that issue. International practice at present would suggest that there ought to be some lay members. Quite what the proportion should be will be for discussion but many jurisdictions do have lay chairs. For example, the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority which we have just established has an independent lay person in charge. Those are the kinds of decisions we will be teasing out and I look forward to what Members have to say about it.

Those are the main points raised on both areas so I will leave it at that.