Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate the Acting Chairperson, Senator Keogan, allowing me to contribute. I thank the Minister, Deputy Harris, who was here earlier, for his contribution. I welcome the Minister of State.

I welcome these statements. As the Minister pointed out, the strategy in this regard is around the key commitments of recruitment, training and development, deployment, governance and evaluation. As has been mentioned by colleagues, recruitment is the key.

I really appreciate the highlighting of the diversity of the members of the Garda Reserve. That will be crucial when it comes to policing our communities. That would be a great way to have more new communities involved and part of An Garda Síochána.

I will highlight the challenges around recruitment that have been spoken about. There definitely has to be a better bank of knowledge in understanding why it is difficult to recruit people. Obviously, we have the highest ever number of people working in Ireland at present. Our population is increasing. People are busier and, of course, the time that can be given to voluntary-type activities has reduced. I am looking at the numbers relating to recruitment to An Garda Síochána and the importance of ensuring that we have a good, strong recruitment campaign, particularly in respect of young people in the secondary schools in the context of career guidance and, perhaps, transition year. Is there more that we can do in linking in with our educational system to promote the opportunities for young people, the long-term careers for people who serve in An Garda Síochána and the career paths that are available? People may have a stereotypical view of a garda, but there are so many different activities that gardaí are involved in, particularly in the context of how they engage with communities and how they are such a strong part of those communities. I very much support the idea of the deployment of the Garda Reserve.

Another challenge we are seeing, particularly with An Garda Síochána, relates to the difficulty caused by the low numbers of gardaí being able to transfer from one section to another. That is causing difficulty for Garda barracks across the country in being able to get staff, particularly with the new model, etc. That is one of those other areas that we need to look at so that we can support transfers where possible, but also that we need higher recruitment numbers.

I do not know if the Minister of State would like to comment on the communication policy of An Garda Síochána and the type of communication that is being used with regard to the recruitment process. Would the Minister of State have any ideas on how that can be improved or what other social media tools can we use to promote it? During the lockdown, the Minister might remember that gardaí across the country were filmed singing and dancing to a particular song. That helped to showcase our beautiful country. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the song. I only remember that it made people smile at a time of extreme difficulty and see that there is a great sense of community within the Garda as well. That is something of value.

Like a lot of occupations, being a garda is a vocation. We really need to value it as such. The Minister spoke of medals for people in the Garda Reserve. That recognition is so important.