Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16 ============================================================ Paul Nicholas Gogarty (IND), Dublin Mid-West Some of us have just received messages that Deputy Michael Healy-Rae is in hospital following an alleged assault. I put on record my best wishes for him in his recovery and my absolute condemnation - no matter what viewpoint people have - of attacks on politicians male or female. I condemn it wholeheartedly and wish him a speedy recovery. I broadly welcome the passage of the Bill through the Seanad. It takes the long-overdue step of streamlining stop-and-search procedures, digital device warrants and integrating the European Union's human rights directives into our domestic laws. However, during the Seanad debates Senator McDowell warned, for example, that we cannot compromise the basic human rights of people in terms of shielding journalistic privilege from digital searches. We have to look after people’s basic human rights. Civil liberties watchdogs like the Irish Council for Civil Liberties demanded accountability through the mandatory recording requirements during police stops of people’s background and ethnicity to ensure people were not being targeted. There is sometimes a fair accusation that police forces throughout the world can and do engage in profiling and targeting, whether of people in disadvantaged areas or those from particular ethnic backgrounds or nationalities. By the same token – this is another reason I regret it is not being covered here and I hope it will be by other means – sometimes it is also useful to be able to determine the nationality of people arrested for offences. We had some, to an extent discredited, reportage in England, for example, suggesting one or two nationalities were up to 22 times more likely to be arrested for sexual offences. When that was brought down it ended up being 3.5 to 14 times more likely than the English average, so even allowing for racial profiling and targeting of particular nationalities, there are questions raised in terms of cultural norms in certain backgrounds that are applicable when people have concerns about large concentrations of people from those backgrounds in particular areas. This raises the issue of education, training and monitoring. There is a win-win situation there for those who think the immigrant population is more likely to assault people, which it is not, and for those who want to ensure gardaí do not go around targeting people willy-nilly, which in general they do not. However, you have to have scrutiny and monitoring to look at these issues and ensure everything has been covered. That is one angle. Another angle to the passing of the Bill is the resourcing of measures in a situation where gardaí are already under-resourced. When it comes to logging and entering information, through what system is it logged? I said 20 years ago and on previous occasions in the Chamber that the PULSE system was outdated before it even came into operation. What is the post-PULSE plan for the new data input we will need? Will any kind of new system be rolled out? Ultimately, it boils down to the actual numbers on the ground. As I said a while back - there have been a few new recruits since - we do not have any more gardaí on the ground per head of population than 2008 because of retirements. In my community recently a boy was beaten up and his bike robbed, and gardaí had still not come to take a statement two days later. People were told there was only one car between two Garda stations and, unfortunately, gardaí could not come to them. The Minister gave some positive information some time back regarding some of the backlogs that impact Garda time. For example, in respect of an antisocial behaviour order a Garda of the rank of sergeant or above has to go to court. Gardaí have to be witnesses in the court system. I would like some confirmation on whether video statements can be used more frequently and how that is progressing. As well as trying to increase Garda numbers, we need to make more efficient usage of Garda time. A bunch of kids under 12 were trying to rob bikes in a local school, which I mentioned in the Chamber some time ago, but when gardaí were called their response was that they were sorry but the car was at the courts at that moment. That is not an acceptable type of response. We cannot blame gardaí for it because they do not have the resources, vehicles or staffing. Equally, public faith in the service has gone. I will come back to this, as I have in regard to consequences for antisocial behaviour among those aged under 18 as well as those aged over 18 down the line. People are getting away with stuff day in and day out. It takes many incidents, perhaps 13 or 14, before people are brought into the system. We need resourcing for juvenile liaison services and additional gardaí. I am digressing from the specific wording in the Bill for the simple reason that I find myself with a few minutes of extra time. I wanted to elaborate on this as this is the first opportunity after the recess to point out that the attacks have begun again. People are still two abreast on scooters and are robbing bikes with masks on. They are attacking people and getting away with it, or at least they are being seen to be getting away with it because it is six or eight months before they come into the system. We need a faster response. I look forward to the additional legislation on e-scooters. If we do not have the resources to employ more gardaí or the system cannot catch up fast enough in terms of recruitment numbers, we have to free up Garda time. The use of smarter technology and AI in a safe context and the ability to work remotely in a better way could be integrated into the courts system. That is a discussion the Minister will have to have and I acknowledge the liberty the courts have. We need to free up time for gardaí on the ground to respond to crises. We need more community gardaí to try to anticipate things that happen. Generally, I broadly welcome the Bill. I would have liked to have seen some more civil liberties protection and information on where people can get rid of misinformation. I also would have liked the Bill to put in place checks and balances to deal with situations where certain nationalities do not respect women in the same way as most people would like. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-16