Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I fully support this legislation. The need for An Garda Síochána to modernise its structures is beyond contradiction. I recall that when I occupied the current Minister's office I introduced the Garda Síochána Act 2005 as part of the reorganisation of An Garda Síochána. However, we knew at that time it was very definitely only the first stage of a much more radical programme of reformation that was necessary. One of the things I remember being conscious of at the time was that the Garda districts and areas seemed to be based, in part, on old Royal Irish Constabulary, RIC, policing areas. Some of them were quite extraordinary. They crossed provincial boundaries and were about as logical as ancient Irish diocesan boundaries in some cases. Obviously, this cannot be the case. It is necessary to have groupings within An Garda Síochána where specialism can exist. With sexual offences and the like, it is necessary to have a cohort of gardaí available in any area of An Garda Síochána where there will be specialism and a teamwork approach, with opportunities for promotion within the specialisms of An Garda Síochána. Therefore, I fully support this legislation and I commend the Minister and the Garda Commissioner on proceeding with it.

I have no doubt that it will be unwelcome for some people because it will close off the number of chief superintendent posts and the like, which some people may think is a problem in terms of their career ladder or career ambitions, but this is a small State and we have to organise our resources properly. Even now when there is a record number of members of An Garda Síochána, it does not make sense to deploy them on the basis of a pattern of population distribution that is a century out of date at this stage.

There is a second point I wish to raise. I am apprehensive that creating bigger areas creates a particular issue that we must address, and I am not against doing so. The issue that has to be considered is the relationship between An Garda Síochána and local communities. I will give the Minister an example. I was speaking to a shopkeeper some years ago in Rooskey, County Roscommon - I have a personal connection with that area - and he told me that on one occasion a number of people came into his premises and were bent on plundering it. He sought Garda protection and asked for an intervention from the gardaí in Carrick-on-Shannon, which is 12 or 15 miles away. He was told that he should contact the gardaí in Boyle in County Roscommon, which is another 15, 20 or perhaps 30 minutes north of Roscommon if he wanted help. What I am saying about boundaries is that there has to be flexibility too. If something serious is going on in one district or if a person carrying on a business needs help urgently, these boundaries must be flexible. We cannot have a situation where somebody is told that he or she must contact somebody 30 or 40 miles away when the person is facing an emergency. The same would apply to domestic violence and many other things. We cannot have a situation where people are deprived of policing services by arbitrary lines drawn on maps. People are entitled to some flexibility in these matters.

The next thing I wish to raise is something on which I have to express a sense of disappointment. I touched on it this morning on the Order of Business in respect of the Defence Forces and voluntarism. An Garda Síochána is in danger of becoming isolated from local contact. If one is patrolling an area in rural Ireland or urban Ireland from a patrol car and if one is supposed to know who is who in the community and to have local intelligence, local contact and local support from the community, an ongoing permanent sense of relationship is required between those who police an area and those who are policed and protected by An Garda Síochána. It was with that in mind and with the very strong support of the Fine Gael Party at the time, and against some opposition it must be said, that the concept of a Garda Reserve was included in the Garda Síochána Act. I have to tell the Minister, and she probably hears this quietly because there is a sense of loyalty among those reservists who have been effectively discarded, demobilised and left unused, that the current regime relating to the Garda Reserve is very unsatisfactory. I had the view that we should have reservists from Tallaght just as much as reservists from Rooskey - people who are in the area, who identify with the Garda and who people in the area felt they knew and could talk to as members of An Garda Síochána even if they were not on active duty as reservists.

I brought the media over to Chester in Wales to see how the reserve constables operated in England and Wales. They were a little shocked when they met an intensive care unit, ICU, nurse, a wonderful woman, who in her spare time, as if she would have much spare time, was a reserve woman police constable. She believed in giving back even more to her community. I hope the current Garda Commissioner does not take this wrongly, but I think there is a slight danger that the idea of reserve policemen coming from north of the Border is slightly tainted in some people's minds as a problem rather than an opportunity. I implore the Minister to encourage the Garda Commissioner to complete his review and to reactivate the reservists. There are many men and women in Ireland who want to help, who want to be the local points of contact and who want to assist the Garda Síochána in their area, but they have been neglected and effectively made redundant. It is an insult to their patriotism that they are left in their current position.