Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In any event, what I am dealing with here is a matter of the greatest seriousness. This Government, on foot of a statutory provision that I put into the Garda Síochána Act 2005, committed itself to expanding the Garda Reserve to 2,000 men and women who would voluntarily assist An Garda Síochána in the discharge of its duties, be available as backup and support, and be part of An Garda Síochána rooted in the community across rural and urban Ireland.

In 2013, the number of reservist gardaí was 1,164. In 2018, it had sunk to 542. I know that because I have been approached in the street by people I have never met before who have told me they were reservists disgusted by the way they were treated by An Garda Síochána. I want to make that clear. They were disgusted by the way they were treated. They entered in a spirit of voluntarism and willingness to help An Garda Síochána, willing to do voluntary service in just the same way as reserve constables do in Britain. I led a delegation of Irish media to see the reserve police force, the special constables, in Chester. People such as nurses from ICUs in Chester also volunteered to be woman reserve constables in their spare time.

The experience of Irish reservists, however, has been uniformly awful. The reason the numbers have declined so spectacularly is that they were made to feel redundant, unwanted and in many cases actually shunned. They turned up to perform their duties and were left standing there, one arm as long as the other, with nothing to do. The general attitude which percolated down to them through An Garda Síochána was that their services were not required, their presence was an unpleasant consequence of a statutory change and that they had nothing to add to the efficiency or efficacy of An Garda Síochána. I am disgusted by that because I believe it represents a clear issue of culture which came not only from the bottom up, and I remember the GRA's opposition to the creation of a reserve in principle, but from middle ranking and more senior ranking gardaí who did not want the bother of having a reserve force and thought they already had enough problems.We now have the suggestion that there is to be a strategic review but we have not heard who will do the review, when it will complete its activities or the like. The result is that this group of men and women have now been reduced to a small remnant of what they were and are being left, effectively, to wither on the branch.

A point made in the other House by a Minister was that this was a matter for the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána. It most certainly is not. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to go back to the Department of Justice and Equality and tell it that it is a matter for the Minister for Justice and Equality, personally, whether the Garda Reserve is increased to 2,000 personnel, as he promised, or halves in number as has actually happened since 2013. It is his personal responsibility. Instead of him coming in here and telling us about how he wants to do the Minister, Deputy Ross's bidding on how the Judiciary should be appointed, he should be doing his job. His job is to ensure that An Garda Síochána operates effectively, that his targets for the recruitment of the Garda Reserve are met, that he insists the Garda Commissioner and An Garda Síochána conclude any study they want to do immediately, that he restores the Garda Reserve to the strength that he promised it would be and that he stops this appalling campaign to effectively drive out decent people from the reserve by a process of neglect and indifference.