Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo ar son Fhine Gael. We are dealing with important legislation of which the Minister has brought us through the main provisions. It is to be welcomed. Probably the most - I do not want to say newsworthy - prominent aspect of the Bill is the provision of body cameras for gardaí. This is something that has been part of a debate on policing for some time. As the Minister said, it is something for which the Commissioner has been asking. To my mind, however, this is an absolutely reasonable step. Arming members of the Garda with an additional tool, that is, the body camera, provides for a number of things. It protects gardaí first of all. It protects them from assaults. One would have to think or hope that somebody would be less likely to assault a garda in the course of his or her duties if there is a camera recording that person as that is happening. It protects individuals from overzealous gardaí and we would never suggest that the Garda is perfect. There are of course people within An Garda Síochána who might be overzealous in dealing with somebody. Where that occurs, there is now an independent record of what happened. Equally, one would think that it would discourage individual members from behaving outside what would be acceptable if there is a device that is going to record what is happening. In that regard, it also protects gardaí from false accusations or allegations of overzealousness or bad behaviour on their part as much as anything else. Perhaps most importantly, the bodycam can be used as an evidential tool. In circumstances where gardaí arrive at a scene, the cameras are activated. They now have an independent recording of what has happened at that particular event or scene. If that is required evidentially later, it can be an incredibly important tool. The reality is, as we know, that many other people have a recording of what happened when incidents occur with gardaí. It is entirely sensible that gardaí would have those recordings in their own power and procurement as well in the way that is set out in the first Part of the Bill. It is really important to remember that bodycams protect gardaí and citizens and help in the prosecution of crime. They are the really important elements that have been brought forward as part of the bodycam legislation before the House and I welcome them.

I also recognise the concerns about the privacy aspects that have been expressed by groups for whom I have great respect like the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. I also acknowledge what the Minister said about the protocols that are going to be built in to the use of bodycams that will be required to be approved by the Department and the Minister through regulation. That is also an incredibly important part of the protections that we build into all legislation for our citizens. It is not appropriate that those protocols would be written out in legislation and, therefore, totally inflexible. To my mind, it makes sense that they will be drawn up over a period of time before the full implementation of bodycams and that they will be put through the sieve of the experts outside of An Garda Síochána as well. Then those protocols will be implemented but equally we will have them in a way that they can be changed if that is what happens. If anything is true of this, it is that the technology is constantly updating and changing and protocols may require to be changed. They should not have to come back to this House to do that. I very much approve of the manner described in the Bill for the approval of the protocols as well.

The Bill is also really about a technological policing response. The Minister said that the reality is that technology is increasingly becoming a part, not just of policing generally, but of policing internationally and international co-operation. We know for example, from the co-operation we get through Europol and other international policing organisations, that we get intelligence and information from other policing bodies and other police forces, because of the technological capacity they have. It is appropriate that we should have a similar technological capacity in this jurisdiction.

ANPR is an important part of that. That independent technology will be there to identify rather than requiring an individual garda to check every car as it goes past. That technology will do that for them without impinging unreasonably on the privacy of an individual or the protection of their data. An issue we have seen come up many times is the number of drivers on Irish roads who are not insured, for example. ANPR is one tool that can be used to deal with that in a much more concrete way. I welcome that as well.

The provisions relating to CCTV are also important. I have grave reservations about the widespread distribution of CCTV. I do not like what we see in other European jurisdictions, even in our nearest neighbour in Britain. It is ironic that London is where George Orwell came from. When going through there one very much has a feeling of Big Brother. There are CCTV cameras on every corner of every street. I can see how that is attractive from a policing and crime prevention point of view but I also see how it is undesirable from a social point of view. In this legislation we need to strike a balance between being able to see everything that is done on the public street and recording it and maintaining it, but having a situation where gardaí are equipped with the tools they need to detect crime, and also to solve crime when an incident occurs. CCTV should be used sparingly rather than carpet bombing a city or town centre with cameras. With that said, what is really important is the involvement of the community in the CCTV schemes and the provisions that are there to allow local authorities to be licensed by An Garda Síochána to operate certain CCTV cameras. Local authorities are going to know in a much more concrete way where the cameras are required. The more we decentralise this to local authorities and to local communities, the better. I would welcome, and I hope the Minister might consider this as we go through, perhaps making that a reserved function of a local authority. This would serve not to disconnect the elected members of the local authority from the application that might be made to An Garda Síochána to make it something that must be approved by councillors in a given area or councillors on a given local authority.Over the past 20 to 25 years we have stripped enough powers away from councillors, so let us give some of them back because nobody knows an area like a local councillor or the person who is on the ground who speaks to everyone. I would favour any application under the provisions of Part 5 being a reserved function for local authority members. From my own time in local authorities I note there are lots of instances where communities are crying out for CCTV because they know it will help with an antisocial behaviour problem or a particular local problem. We need to equip local authorities and, by extension, communities to deal with those problems in the way they think is the right way to do it, and to do so in conjunction with An Garda Síochána so that we are not trampling on data protection rights, privacy rights and all the rest. I welcome what is in the Bill in that regard but I hope the Minister might consider making it something that is directly connected to the elected representatives of the people at a local level.

Broadly, what we have here is a very considered and quite restrained Bill. Given the debate there has been around this and what can and may be done in the future, the Bill represents quite a restrained technological response to equip the Garda with the tools it needs to do the job we all need it to do. Notwithstanding the discussion about policing recently, I have said on a number of occasions that we are incredibly lucky to have a police force in this country that is unarmed and that reacts with a proportionate response to problems. It does not mean that they do everything right or that they get it right every time or that there are not problems - of course there are - but in An Garda Síochána, we have perhaps uniquely among European police forces, a police force that is connected to the people it polices and is respected by them. That is an incredibly important tool. Now we need first to maintain that but second, to equip them with the tools they need to do the job at every level. Technology must be a key part of that, which is why I welcome the provisions in this Bill to arm the Garda with that technology.