Seanad debates
Thursday, 29 June 2023
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
An Garda Síochána
9:30 am
Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, to the House.
Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is welcome. While the wording of my Commencement matter refers to a Garda station in Donegal, a station is not necessarily what we need. This is more to do with the Garda review that is taking place across the country. I am here to pitch on behalf of the people in Donegal and also a representative group that wrote to me recently, namely, the Donegal Public Participation Network chaired by Mr. Joe Boland. The network represents 698 community groups in the county and recently made representations to the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, on the proposed new policing network that proposes to merge Donegal with Sligo and Leitrim. It was to be the Donegal-Sligo-Leitrim division and now I believe it is to be the Sligo-Leitrim-Donegal division, which shows already where Donegal will come in the pecking order.
Moreover, under the current proposals, Donegal is being left with bases in Buncrana, Letterkenny and Ballyshannon. If we take a line from Letterkenny to Ballyshannon, everything west of that line represents nearly two thirds of Donegal, which is roughly the size of Sligo and Leitrim put together. The cover in that area is not sufficient. The Border stretches for 100 km along Donegal. On the other side of the county, we have much more than coastline. Like everywhere else, we have serious drug problems. The level of policing proposed for west Donegal is in no way sufficient. The population of the area multiplies over the summer months. My district of Milford, which is roughly the size of County Fermanagh, is losing its superintendent. Given the vast size of the district, the proposal for cover there is completely insufficient.
I make a strong appeal to the Minister of State regarding the current proposals for County Donegal. We are being lumped in with the Sligo-Leitrim division. Donegal is joined to the rest of the Republic by a border of only 4 km in the south of the county. We are already seeing the name change from the Donegal-Sligo-Leitrim division to the Sligo-Leitrim-Donegal division. If the main base is to be in Sligo, Donegal is not going to get the representation and type of policing we need. There are serious drug problems everywhere but Donegal in particular is too close to the Border. It is too easy to bring in drugs by aircraft or boat. Recently, we had major drug finds in the Milford district.
I appeal to the Minister to take another look at Donegal as part of the review, especially west Donegal where the population explodes during the tourist season. West Donegal is a big part of the Wild Atlantic Way. In the past couple of days, we have had an issue in Sliabh Liag in west Donegal, which is currently being investigated. The proposals before us for cover in west Donegal are just not good enough. I am thankful the Wild Atlantic Way is becoming successful and tourist numbers are increasing year on year. We need a review of the proposals for Donegal.
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. Senator Blaney has been consistent in his support for An Garda Síochána and County Donegal both within the Chamber and with the Department of Justice.
This Government is steadfast in its commitment to building stronger, safer communities. Everyone deserves to be safe and to feel safe in their local community and this is a central tenet of Government policy. The Government remains committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to police communities across the country and keep our communities safe. An unprecedented allocation of over €2 billion was provided in budget 2023 and this is funding the planned recruitment of up to 1,000 new Garda recruits as well as over 400 Garda staff.
The Senator will appreciate that the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including the Garda estate, and the Minister has no operational responsibility in relation to Garda estate matters, such as the location of Garda stations. Similarly, the deployment of Garda members falls within the remit of the Commissioner and the Minister has no operational role concerning the allocation of Garda resources, as set out in law. The Minister is assured by the Commissioner that these matters are kept under continual review to deliver on An Garda Síochána's mission of keeping people safe.The Garda Commissioner continues to roll out the new Garda operating model provided for in the Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Act 2022. This new operating model seeks to release front-line gardaí from roles that can be effectively carried out by civilian Garda staff, thereby facilitating a stronger focus on community safety. The new model will also enhance the investigation of crime through the delivery of greater range of specialised services in local areas, such as the investigation of sexual crime, domestic violence, cybercrime and economic crime.
The Garda operating model plans to replace 28 Garda divisions with 19 divisions. There are four functional areas within each operating model, namely, business services, community engagement, crime and performance assurance. Each division is headed up by a chief superintendent and each functional area is headed up by a superintendent, with an assistant principal officer leading on business services. The model as proposed by the Commissioner seeks to reduce significantly the administrative and bureaucratic workload that presently sits with superintendents at district level. Reducing this administrative workload will mean superintendents and local commanders will have the capacity to devote more time to community engagement duties, ensuring closer partnership and discussion on community policing matters and addressing local concerns.
As regards County Donegal, I am aware the Commissioner committed that superintendents would hold community forums throughout the county to hear from communities. More than ten of these meetings occurred in the first quarter of this year. Feedback from the meetings informs and influences local policing plans. I am advised by the Garda authorities that a significant amount of progress has been made across the Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal divisions to establish the business services functional area that will uplift the administrative and bureaucratic load from superintendents. The full operation of this support service will be in place by July and fully staffed by Garda civilian staff.
Finally, I am informed by An Garda Síochána that a review of the newly established three-county Mayo, Roscommon and Longford division is currently being undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the three-county model to date. The Garda review seeks to identify lessons learned from this for the benefit of future divisions, such as Donegal, scheduled to move to a three-county model.
Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I acknowledge the Minister is saying she does not have influence in this but the reality is that Kerry was to be a different model. The outcome there is now different, probably for good reason. In order to expand tourism, we in County Donegal are seeking to go down a similar route to that taken in County Kerry. Donegal is a large county. Responsibility will lie with the Minister for Justice if there is insufficient Garda cover in west Donegal, as is currently the case. Gardaí on the ground are talking quietly to community groups. They are not happy with the cover that is currently in place. In addition, there are large Gaeltacht areas in Donegal. There is an element of responsibility there. I am pleading with the Minister of State to go back and have a discussion with the Minister, Deputy McEntee. The cover in Donegal is insufficient. I will keep harping on about it here until something is done about it, as proposed.
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Senator for raising the important matter of the need for a Garda station and resources in west Donegal. I assure him the Government is unwavering in its commitment to providing An Garda Síochána with significant funding to perform its crucial policing role nationwide.
We are now in a period of sustained recruitment of Garda members and staff. This enables the Garda Commissioner to increase the number of gardaí on duty and redeploy more gardaí to front-line policing duties. The most recent Garda recruitment campaign received 5,000 applications, which indicates the considerable level of public interest in becoming a Garda and building a career with An Garda Síochána. The number of trainee Garda members has been steadily increasing at the Garda College at Templemore with each intake. Last November, 92 recruits entered the college, while 135 commenced in February and another 154 commenced in May. An Garda Síochána is prepared to take in a new class every 11 weeks for the remainder of the year, as provided for in the budget. The number of Garda members has risen by almost 9% since 2015, when the Garda College reopened. These gardaí are supported by approximately 3,100 Garda staff across the organisation, representing a substantial increase of more than 50% on the total number of civilian staff in 2015. This allows gardaí to be freed up from administrative duties and move onto the front line. This dedicated and ongoing funding and growing of Garda resources will continue.