Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I have been pressing for this debate for some time and I want to say a few things. When the Garda Reserve was originally canvassed in Dáil Éireann, it received all-party support. The one group that was opposed to it at the time was the Garda Representative Association, GRA. One of its officers said he would be waiting in the long grass for me as a result of establishing it, words that I think were unfortunate at the time. Unfortunately, many members of the reserve found there were people waiting in the long grass for them in An Garda Síochána, and their experiences have been mixed to say the very least. As Senator Ward said, some of them had good experiences because responsible and decent officers encouraged and made use of them. Others were marginalised or left alone and almost sent to Coventry in stations and made to feel their presence was completely unwanted and that they were never going to be used.

The consequences were that in 2009, there were 478 members. It grew in 2014 to more than 1,100 members. From 2015 onwards, there has been a steady decline from 900 to 600, 500, 520, 458, 407, 425 and now we are at approximately 380 members. The reason is that since 2015, there has been no recruitment whatsoever. The Commissioner, who I have great time for, published a strategy document two years ago in 2021. With the greatest will in the world, and the best goodwill towards him particularly, it is waffle. There is not mention of a single figure of how many gardaí are proposed to be recruited. I understand the Government has now stated that 2,000 is now its target figure. It is extraordinary that when it was at 1,200, it was allowed to go down to 300.

I want to say one other thing to the Minister. He is only here for a short period and I welcome his initiative in coming here today to deal with this issue. However, this is a period in which volunteerism in Ireland generally has collapsed. It is not just a matter of retained firemen not being properly dealt with in rural areas. It is far broader than that. The Reserve Defence Force is now critically endangered. The number of people who actually turn up for training every year is a tiny fraction of what its strength should be.

An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil, FCA, which was in place at one time, was spread across Ireland. A person could go to his or her local FCA depot and train. A mistake was made in my view and we now have a situation where the number of people who can actually handle a weapon for the Irish State in the event of an emergency has dwindled to practically nothing outside of the Permanent Defence Force, which itself is suffering a crisis of recruitment and retention. The same applies to the Civil Defence. I was in this Chamber recently when a Civil Defence Bill was put before us. In 2015, the website for the Civil Defence stated there were 4,500 people in it. I note it issued another strategy document along the lines of this document and said at that stage, which was approximately two years ago, it had 3,500 members. Therefore, 1,000 had gone. The Minister when introducing the Bill in this House in the past fortnight had to confess that the number of Civil Defence volunteers is now less than 2,500. Right across the board in Ireland, those who have volunteered to assist the Irish State in their spare time have found the situation unrewarding. That is all I can say. Their dwindling numbers reflect a sad pattern of neglect of volunteerism right across the security services.

I also want to say one thing about the Garda Reserve. It is no threat to the living standards or conditions of work, pay or anything else of any full-time member of An Garda Síochána, and those who think that are deluding themselves. One thing about the transformation in policing in Ireland that has become clear over the last century is that An Garda Síochána is losing its local roots. You can be in a rural town and gardaí can be patrolling at night in a squad car from 30 miles away. They do not know anybody in the town and very few people in the town know them. That is the sad fact at this stage. The presence of Garda reservists right across the country, and I am not just talking about rural areas but the suburbs of Dublin, whether Tallaght, Donnybrook or wherever it has to be, gives An Garda Síochána some presence locally. If it is done properly, it gives the Garda some capacity to know what is happening in the ground in communities, other than when gardaí are at the wrong end of an incident or a reported crime.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. My time is limited but I want to say that the pattern of neglect is so obvious, the mistreatment of so many reservists has been so painful to them and the failure to recruit over the last seven years has been so inexplicable that we must now deliver on this promise to get numbers in the Garda Reserve up to 2,000. It has to be done smartly. It will require somebody in the Phoenix Park being given the sole job of ensuring the reserve operates and reservists are treated properly and making a success of what could be a hugely important aspect of policing in Ireland.