Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I very much welcome and support the legislation. As she outlined, it provides for the use of body-worn cameras for gardaí, the expanded use of automatic number plate recognition and provisions relating to the use of CCTV footage and the recording of telephone calls. Any measure we can introduce that helps the Garda in its role is to be we welcomed, while at the same time striking a balance with the goal of protecting the public in respect of data protection and so on.

On behalf of my party, I pay tribute to the men and women of An Garda Síochána who go out on a daily basis to protect us. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing number of violent assaults on members of An Garda Síochána as they go about their duty. In the period from 2015 to 2022, there were in excess of 2,000 assaults on members of An Garda Síochána. That is reprehensible. I put forward legislation in this House with the goal of increasing sentences for people convicted of assault, not just on members of An Garda Síochána but on any members of the emergency services, whether gardaí, nurses, doctors, fire service personnel, paramedics or otherwise, as they go about their duty. I commend the Minister on bringing forward legislation with the aim to increase the maximum sentence to 12 years for anybody convicted of assaulting an emergency worker. I very much welcome that development and I sincerely hope it acts as a strong deterrent to anybody who would assault any of our emergency workers. We in this House have a duty to protect those we send out on a daily basis to protect us.I fully support this legislation as I outlined earlier. Any mechanism or tool we can give An Garda Síochána to allow it to do its duty in the prevention and investigation of crime, while at the same time striking a balance so that the public's interests are very much catered for, is to be welcomed. The Minister has struck a balance in this legislation and has achieved that goal, which is to be very much welcomed.

The body-worn cameras An Garda Síochána will hopefully have very shortly will help not just to protect gardaí as they go about their work, but also to protect members of the public. Increasingly we see instances on social media of cameras being stuck in the faces of gardaí in very volatile and violent situations and this is to be condemned. When gardaí enter a scene where they feel switching on that camera is necessary, it would be a great tool not just to protect the gardaí but also to protect members of the general public. The Minister has struck a balance when it comes to the protection of the public, which is vital.

The concerns that Members rightly have regarding CCTV were mentioned here. My feelings on this are very strong. CCTV has not simply been a tool to help gardaí to investigate crime; it has acted as a tool to prevent crime in the first instance. Many businesses the length and breadth of the country have installed CCTV. It has been a very useful tool in the investigation of assaults. I commend those people on installing CCTV. We must strike a balance between the gardaí, whom we send out to protect us, and the rights of the general public. This is a delicate balance but it would be remiss of us not to give the gardaí every available tool to assist them as they go about their daily duties and try to prevent and investigate crime.

We are not new to the party in respect of this. Many other EU states have gone down this road and have found body-worn cameras in particular to be very useful in this regard. I am heartened that there will be continual oversight of this. We live in a digital age where technology is changing not just on a daily basis but on an hourly basis. The Minister has taken this into consideration as well with regard to the ongoing oversight that will be applied, which is very much to be welcomed. I take great comfort from the second last paragraph of the Minister's speech in which she outlined that it is important that An Garda Síochána has the tools and resources it needs, and that the public needs to be assured that these tools and resources will be used in an appropriate manner. I have no doubt that they will. The rights of citizens must be protected but the most important right of all is the right of An Garda Síochána to protect us. We should promote at every juncture every tool we can give it to do its job properly. As Senator Ward said, we are very fortunate to have the Garda force we have, which polices by consent. Gardaí are not armed and, by and large, are very much welcomed and accepted in every corner and parish of the State. That is not to say that there are no bad apples in every barrel - there certainly are - but by and large, we can be very proud of the members of An Garda Síochána, who are our sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and neighbours and who go out every day to protect us. We are very fortunate to have them and it is incumbent on us to give them every tool we can to help them to go about their jobs.