An Garda Síochána: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2023-10-04
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"acknowledges that:
— it is over 100 years since the foundation of An Garda Síochána;
— the mission of An Garda Síochána is 'Keeping People Safe';
— An Garda Síochána play a crucial role in our communities, building stronger, safer communities, maintaining law and order, upholding the principles of justice and fostering community well-being;
— through the promotion of crime prevention and visible policing, the Gardaí foster a sense of security, especially among the most vulnerable in our communities;
— our communities rely on the Gardaí to respond to emergency calls, patrol our neighbourhoods, prevent and investigate crimes;
— the dedication, professionalism, and commitment of the Gardaí to serving the community is invaluable in creating a safe and secure environment for all and deterring criminal activities; and
— to carry out their mission, the Government has ensured in successive Budgets that An Garda Síochána have the resources and leadership to do so;
recognises:
— that following the forced closure of the Garda College during the Covid-19 pandemic, Garda recruitment is now accelerating with each new class group entering the Templemore campus;
— that 100 new Gardaí have attested so far this year, and that another 470 are in active training, with two more classes due into Templemore in October and December;
— the progress being made towards reaching the Government's target of 15,000 members of An Garda Síochána and 4,000 civilian Garda staff;
— the major increase in investment in annual funding through Budget 2023, which provided a total allocation of €2.4 billion, an increase of €340 million in annual funding;
— the new Garda Reserve campaign which will be launched soon, to further support increased policing visibility in our communities;
— the roll-out of Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSP) and the implementation of the Rural Safety Plan;
— the implementation by An Garda Síochána of the new Community Policing Model;
— that the introduction of Community Policing Areas (CPAs), which will be created nationwide with a dedicated Community Garda given responsibility for each new CPA, will improve Garda visibility;
— the recent legislative changes to provide access to Garda members to the industrial relations machinery of the State, including the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court; and
— legislation brought forward before the summer recess to increase the maximum sentence for assaulting a member of An Garda Síochána and other emergency workers, from seven to 12 years; and
calls on the Government to:
— continue to support the work being done by An Garda Síochána with international partners to deal with organised crime gangs and the related issue of drugs in our communities;
— bring forward the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023, currently before the Houses, which will introduce a new framework for policing, security and community safety in Ireland as recommended by the Commission on the Future of Policing;
— continue to provide supports and initiatives to strengthen wellbeing and job satisfaction of the members and staff of An Garda Síochána; and
— bring forward the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022, to allow for the use of bodycams which will support Gardaí in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.".
I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and colleagues for raising what I know is an important matter for all of us. I am also grateful for the opportunity to outline how we are making progress in building stronger and safer communities. As Minister, I am determined to keep people safe. That has always been front and centre of everything I do. I assure the House that I am not distracted in any way from that task but there are challenges and always will be challenges; of that I have no doubt. There is always more we can do. Our communities want more gardaí, as do I. We all agree that we want the same thing.
Investment in An Garda Síochána across the justice sector is increasing and is at the highest level ever. Budget 2023 brought An Garda Síochána’s total allocation to €2.14 billion. The increase in €340 million in annual funding in the past three years alone is supporting An Garda Síochána in the excellent work it is doing in many areas.
On gangland crime, we have seen significant changes and work being done on the ground. There is ongoing success in seizing drugs being smuggled into our country. Last week, we had the largest ever such seizure, led by An Garda Síochána. We are building international coalitions to tackle these organised crime gangs which operate with little respect for borders or people. Gangland murders are falling dramatically but, unfortunately, we have seen an increase in homicides. These killings are driven largely by domestic abuse, which is a matter we have to address and are addressing. We are making progress in tackling this heinous epidemic through our zero tolerance plan. We have introduced tougher laws and stronger sentences and we are developing new refuges and accommodation. We are building long-term structures to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and, most important, to challenge and change the attitudes that underpin it and to help victims. We have just advertised for the position of the CEO of a new domestic violence agency which will be up and running early in the new year. This is to ensure we have structures in place so that no matter who the Minister is, who is in government or who is serving in the Oireachtas, this will be long-term reform to tackle what is a deep-rooted problem in our society.
Nobody knows better than the local community what needs to be done to improve community safety, whether it is Navan, Galway or any of the towns or villages we represent . Community safety partnerships are the way in which we will respond to that. These partnerships acknowledge that increasing community safety is not just the responsibility of An Garda Síochána. We all acknowledge that too much has fallen on its members' shoulders for many years now. It requires many State agencies, organisations and elected representatives to come together, whether that is Tusla, local businesses, education providers, enterprise workers, youth services working together with local communities or elected representatives. It means bringing everyone around the table, identifying what the issues are within each county and community and drawing up individual plans. From next year, every area will have a community safety partnership to draw up its own community safety plan. Ahead of the national roll-out, we have rolled out three pilot areas, in the north inner city of Dublin, Longford and Waterford, to ensure we have geographical and regional spread and different sizes of counties.
When I commenced the community safety partnership pilots, the goal was very simple. We want to empower communities to have a say in community safety. The Dublin north inner city local community safety plan, which was published just this month, is a perfect example of this fresh approach. Some of the actions in this publication are already being worked on and have already been funded in certain ways. There are recommendations around Garda presence, enhanced youth services, businesses taking initiatives such as the new community safety wardens, and local authorities playing their part. Simple things such as street lighting, cleaning, shop fronts are being addressed as part of one plan being rolled out collectively. It will not be perfect but, again, this is a long-term plan which is often trying to deal with deep-rooted problems.
Along with the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, I am fully committed to further extending our network of youth diversion programmes. This is of huge importance when dealing with antisocial behaviour and issues that arise throughout the country. These programmes do highly valuable work and operate under the youth justice strategy. Funding for this strategy alone has increased by 67% just in the past three years. Some €30 million is supporting these projects, which means that by the end of this year, every single part of the country will have cover. We are now trying to ensure there is weekend cover and start to support hard-to-reach children and even children who are younger than those we are dealing with now. It is unfortunately a fact that we need to engage with much younger people and create diversion programmes for them. I will be in the Seanad later today progressing the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023. This legislation is what underpins the partnerships nationally but a physical presence is also central to community safety.
As I said, I want more gardaí, as we all do. It is an unfortunate fact, however, that we had to close the Garda College when the Covid pandemic struck. People may like to ignore that fact and say Garda numbers have dropped in the past three years but the Garda College was closed and with no college, we could not produce Garda recruits. My party was proud to reopen the college previously when it had closed and we are now building momentum in recruitment. Almost 500 people completed or began training last year. After the Covid enforced pause, members in Templemore continue to increase. We have attestations every three months. The intake of new recruits was 135 in February, 154 in May and 174 in July. We will have another group starting again in October. When we look at the overall number for this year, we will have 100 new Garda members attested, 470 will be in active training and two more classes are due in Templemore in October and December.
While we knew Garda numbers would drop lower than we would like, they are stabilising and I have every confidence that they will also start to increase. As Deputies have alluded to, plans are in train to allow for a new recruitment campaign for the Garda Reserve. This will, in turn, help to increase visibility and support gardaí in the work they are doing on the ground. I assure the House that we are examining all options with regard to recruitment and retention. This means increasing the entry age at which members can join. I hope to be able to make a decision on that very shortly with the Garda Commissioner. We are engaging with regard to the retirement age and looking at other measures as well. Obviously, budget discussions are ongoing, as will become clear next week.
On the structure itself, Members alluded to significant ongoing reform of the Garda. There has been a huge number of changes and I would be the first to acknowledge that many changes have come in a very short space of time. That is not easy and in itself puts pressure on members. I thank members of An Garda Síochána for the way in which they have responded to and are implementing this reform. They also give feedback and I have to stress that there is a continuous engagement from senior management with members to understand how these changes can be adapted and amended and how they can work better. Whether it is the operating model or the new online systems, changes have taken place. I appreciate more may be needed and I have no doubt that, where required, changes will continue to take place.
On the operating model, one of the main benefits of the new model is that it will put in place community policing teams across the country. All of us want to know who the local community garda is in order that they have their number, can pick up the phone and deal with him or her with regard to antisocial behaviour, crime prevention, community safety or whatever else. People have different reasons for wanting to contact a garda. Each community garda will have responsibility to be highly visible and active, to engage with local businesses and communities and also to deal with local groups. They will be at the front line of a reformed service which has community policing at its core.
There has been a lot of feedback indicating that this new structure is not working. Reform and change take time, particularly when a global pandemic occurs in the middle of it. That, in turn, affects numbers. When I ask individual gardaí whether, if we had more gardaí or the numbers we thought we would have prior to Covid-19, the model would work better, many of them say "Yes". We need to ensure we continue to listen, to adapt and change when change is needed and to recruit as quickly as we can. Many people very much want to join An Garda Síochána. Perhaps there is a view that that is not the case but it absolutely is the case that thousands are still applying under the recruitment campaigns and we will hold another recruitment campaign early in the new year.
On the welfare of Garda members, which Deputies also mentioned, this is something I take very seriously in every meeting I have with any of the representative organisations. They raise the issue and I speak to them about it. I ask what more I can do and what funding I can provide to ensure supports and resources are available to them. Deputy Berry is right that gardaí deal with horrific situations and have to respond to very difficult scenarios. It is important we put measures in place to support them. That is why we enacted legislation before the summer to increase the maximum sentence for someone who assaults a member of An Garda Síochána.
That is why we are bringing in body-worn cameras. I am pleased that legislation is passing through the Seanad at the moment to make sure they are provided and afforded with the same protections when they go about their work. That Bill will also allow for further community CCTV which assists them in doing their work. It also makes sure we have funding for things such as the keeping our people supported, KOPS, resource, an online app that supports them directly, that we support their health, well-being and wellness and access to support, wellness days and that we do even more. That is an absolute priority for me at all times.
Briefly on the roster, I absolutely appreciate it is important for members, for their work-life balance and for the same reason that our work is important to us and the way in which we balance it with our family and social lives. However, it is also important that the Commissioner is able to put in place a roster that fits the needs of the people of the day. This will only be resolved by people talking and by sitting down around the table. I know I am saying that consistently but that is how this kind of scenario gets resolved. Further meetings are happening today and tomorrow between the Commissioner and the four associations. I have no doubt but that there will be a solution and a resolution found to what is a really important issue for everyone involved.
I thank the Members for putting down this motion. It is really important that we continue to invest in An Garda Síochána and to support them because gardaí have an extremely difficult job and I think we all want to support them in whatever way we can.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-10-04