Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Bill, which the Minister moved to be read a Second Time this afternoon, contains a considerable amount of detail. It is substantial legislation which the Minister proposes to enact. It is important to emphasise that at its core is community safety. Some of the people listening to these proceedings may not be instantly or keenly interested in Garda oversight structures, internal governance or national security legislation, although these are vitally important. Some are more worried about whether they will be able to get home without being harassed today and some will be preoccupied with the exact time of sunset in case they have to change their walking route home in the dark. This must be our main focus. This is the social contract which underpins everything between the State and its citizens. People obey laws but are protected by the State.

This Bill will put community safety beyond the sole remit of An Garda Síochána. It is envisaged that it will become an all-of-government responsibility, including that of State agencies and local authorities. The prevention of harm to individuals who are vulnerable or at risk will be a specific objective of An Garda Síochána in performing its functions. The Bill will also enable communities to be proactive, to get the right support at the right time with both crime and non-crime issues such as helping people with mental health difficulties and addiction issues.

I urge the Minister to consider providing funding for women's and girls' safety audits, a framework developed by the UN Habitat agency. The Minister has a track record of concern in this area and in the area of domestic violence. This is one way in which we can include communities in the process of making themselves safer. The Green Party councillor, Mr. Mark Hackett, has spearheaded a survey on gender-based violence in the three Offaly towns of Tullamore, Birr and Edenderry as part of his work on the joint policing committee, JPC, in that county. When asked about solutions, responses to the survey included an increased Garda presence, more public lighting, more CCTV, an increase in litter cleaning and the maintenance of hedges. We should be giving money to local authorities to carry out work to tackle the problem, to identify areas that are considered to be unsafe and to use those lessons to improve existing spaces as well as to inform the design of future public spaces.

The introduction of an independent examiner of security legislation is a positive move. One of the functions of the independent examiner will be to review security services and legislation. We are at risk in many senses on this island and that has become clear in recent years. Last year the head of the National Security Analysis Centre, NSAC, said that we face an increasing threat from foreign interference and disruption, from espionage, traditional or cyber, from disinformation, attacks on our democratic system, economic interference, intellectual property theft and from a generally increased aggressive stance by hostile states. Improvements to, and increased funding for, our Defence Forces will help us to combat these threats but there is still a lot more to do. Is the Minister confident that this legislation will help to protect us from cyber threats in the future? I would also like to respectfully ask the Minister how An Garda Síochána, Departments and other agencies will co-ordinate on cybersecurity and where responsibility lies between them all.

In conclusion, I repeat the calls made yesterday by Rape Crisis Network Ireland and Safe Ireland for victims of sexual violence to be able to access legal aid at all stages of the process. They made this call as part of a submission on the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Bill and I urge the Minister to consider it strongly. I also wish to bring to the Minister's attention comments made by a judge of the District Court recently, Judge Campbell, in an address to a conference on domestic violence and child protection. He called for mandatory legal aid in some family law cases, regardless of income. I would like to read what he said into the record of the House by way of concluding my contribution to the Second Stage debate on this Bill. Judge John Campbell said that "legal aid should be mandatory, regardless of income, in family law cases where parents seek domestic violence orders or face their children being taken into care". He said that the working poor very often lose out in cases where their disposable income exceeds €18,000 per year, which is the income threshold for legal aid. The judge went on to say that he hears childcare cases in the Bridewell court and he called for the lifting of salary caps for child protection social workers and greater State support for foster families.

The Minister is very busy but I know she is committed to further reforms. We see her in these Houses quite often and she is always welcome. She has a big, reforming legislative agenda that she is trying to get through and I hope she can give some time to the issues I have highlighted.