Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. As he said, he has worked on this for some time. I also thank my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, who has also worked on progressing this matter. In the past year, we celebrated 100 years of the Garda. As the Senator said, those members go out every day, say goodbye to their loved ones and do not know what they will face on a day-to-day basis. We are sending a clear signal and message to anybody who would stop, thwart, assault, hurt or harm a member who is carrying out his or her duty, which is to keep the rest of us safe. I acknowledge the work of Senator Gallagher and the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond.

I will turn to other areas and how we address these issues. Senator Black is correct that it not all about sentencing. We must take a holistic approach. That is why we have the community safety partnerships we are working on. We have three pilot areas. They are looking not only at the Garda and the role it has to play when its members are called to the scene of an incident that might involve someone with a mental health problem, but are also looking at the services and how everybody is working together. In particular on weekends, when services are closed, gardaí are called out to specific types of incidents that may include, as the Senator specifically mentioned, someone with a mental health problem. It is about getting to the root cause and trying to prevent the incident from happening but when it does happen, we need to give the Judiciary an option where it sees fit to impose of a higher penalty. All factors have to be taken into account in any case and that is the case if someone has a mental health problem or if there is a particular factor that has led to an assault. The crux of the matter is the clear message to the effect that assaults on a member of the Garda or somebody who is working to protect each and every one of us will not be tolerated. I thank my colleagues for their input and significant contribution in this regard.