Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin has been consistently clear and firm on the need for the Garda and the PSNI to be adequately resourced to deal robustly with the threat posed to people throughout the country by organised criminals and opportunistic criminals. Our members live in the communities most affected by criminal gangs and see at first hand the impact of their activities on people in going about their everyday business and trying to provide a safe and secure life for themselves, their children and families. The criminals preying on communities are a scourge on society, especially in areas already experiencing high levels of deprivation. They operate through a reign of fear and intimidation.

The motion tabled by Fianna Fáil and the amendment tabled by Fine Gael both reflect the gravity of the threat posed by criminals and the measures required to face it. It would not have been too difficult for both parties to have agreed to a motion which all of us in this House could support. It would have allowed us to present a united message to the people we represent that the Garda will not tolerate the activities of these gangs. A united position would have assured people that politicians are fully behind them as they encounter the gangs on the streets of their towns and villages. However, in the absence of an agreed proposal, Sinn Féin will support Fianna Fáil's motion.

My party supported the establishment of a joint agency task force under the Fresh Start agreement. The Minister played a role in securing that agreement between the Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the main parties in the North. The purpose of the task force was to target organised criminals, North and South. It was led by senior officers from An Garda Síochána and the PSNI and officials of the Revenue Commissioners in this state and HM Revenue and Customs in the North. The task force incorporated a strategic oversight group to identify strategic priorities and an operations co-ordination group to organise and oversee joint policing operations tackling criminals and direct resources to that purpose. Is the Minister content that the task force has been effective in meeting the challenges, particularly in Border communities?I do not ask this in an adversarial way. I am asking the Minister to give us a considered view on that, and if there is anything we in the Seanad and those of us who sit on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality can do to look at the task force and try to assist in enabling it in a way that delivers greater community safety and protection for those communities most impacted. In the current context, as has been outlined very ably by Senators Gallagher and Conway, if we asked those communities whether the task force was making a practical and tangible difference to them at this time, they would probably say it was not, but it could and it should. This is where we need to get to in the course of our work.

What lessons can be learned from the task force operation in tackling the gangs more effectively? We need more officers recruited into the Garda and into the PSNI. We also need to be assured that the additional personnel will be put to good use to combat the criminals effectively and not to police checkpoints along the Border. Additional resources will be needed to complement the intelligence gathering and investigative capacity of both organisations. We have raised any number of times the closure of Garda stations, especially in rural areas. There is a slight irony in the lamenting of the absence of Garda resources in rural areas by the very same people who were responsible for closing so many of those stations, but we are where we are.

Sinn Féin is a strong advocate for community and neighbourhood policing teams and for the promotion of strong and genuine policing with a community ethos and practice, and with human rights compliance at its heart. This involves a genuine partnership between the community, the key agencies and the police. For it to be effective requires a joint identification of policing priorities aligned to joint problem solving and an attempt to deal effectively with these matters at a grassroots community level.