Mark Duffy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I welcome the Minister and thank him for his contributions last week and this afternoon. My experience of policing in County Mayo has been very positive. I served on Mayo County Council over the past six years and the model I found most effective and efficient in terms of being close to the people and gardaí being the guardians of the peace on the ground was the community policing model in the towns of Castlebar, Westport, and Ballina where I am from.

The community policing model is brilliant in multiple ways. It is the touchpoint for the gardaí on the ground, whether it is touching base with the shops to keep an eye on crime, being visible on the streets or in relation to rural isolation. There is nothing better than a garda in a community policing role who is conscious of Mary who lives on her own two miles out of town and who may need something, such as presence and visitation. Given the number of community gardaí in Mayo who are fabulous at their jobs and do them so well, I ask the Minister to consider expanding that model and rolling it out as much as possible to every town, village and community because it has such a positive effect. Even from intelligence gathering on crime or petty crime, although not even petty crimes but larger scale crimes that are committed, community police are on the ground every day and are picking up information that can be fed back while also showing the presence of the force right across the community.

From an elected member's point of view, the second matter is the role of joint policing committees. I know changes have been proposed but it is really important from a local democracy point of view that the decision-making, interaction and orbit of the Garda remains as close as possible to the county councillors and elected representatives on the ground. As representatives we are, and councillors are, the touchpoint for the community on the ground and the elected members and the gardaí need to be interlinked. It can only be a net gain for communities.

When preparing for my contribution, I wrote a note about data control and Senator Keogan raised this issue as well. The system in place does not make sense. In Ballina, if gardaí want access to CCTV, they have to go to the county council, as the data controller, to retrieve footage and video evidence. That does not make sense and we need to have a ministerial directive, or something else, that cuts through that in the interest of the common good and public safety. A council building could be closed on a bank holiday Monday and a crime could be committed on Friday night but gardaí would have to wait until Tuesday morning to access footage. That does not make sense in any world or any walk of life and I ask the Minister to look into that issue.

Another opportunity is town and village regeneration. There is still dereliction and vacancy right across the country. It is still not being dealt with. Passive surveillance is such a brilliant way of tackling and addressing crime and antisocial behaviour in towns and villages. There needs to be a conversation around that between the Department of Justice and the Department of local government and housing to make sure there are regulations that encourage over-the-shop developments and that there is deregulation to allow for that but that they are safety conscious from a fire point of view. It is powerful to have people on the ground, monitoring and keeping an eye on the town centre, so that it is not quiet and dead in the evening but that there is activity and vibrancy.

My final point concerns the proliferation of vaping shops in towns and villages across the country. There are multiple examples in County Mayo of vapes and candy being sold together. It is disgusting and is not positive from any point of view. It has so many antisocial knock-on effects, so the Minister should do whatever he can do within his power. There is a loophole that vaping and candy can be advertised and sold together on high streets. Some of these are heritage streets. It is totally out of kilter in terms of what we are trying to do about town regeneration. If the Minister has powers and means within his office and Ministry to address that, it would be most welcome across the board. I would really welcome his consideration of that and if he could put some effort into this issue because this is brought up at grassroots level and by councillors right across the country. It would be really welcome if this issue was addressed.