Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16 ============================================================ Mattie McGrath (IND), Tipperary South I would also like to send good wishes to our esteemed colleague and hard-working Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. I wish him well in St. Vincent's this evening after an episode that should not happen to any politician, male or female. It is a timely reminder to all of us. We wish him a speedy recovery and wish his wife and family well. I am delighted to be able to speak on the Bill. This legislation is badly needed, but we need to have balance between what the public needs and requires. No police force in the world can support, manage and survive without the support of the public. That has been the case since the inception of the State and the setting up of the Garda Síochána. However, there are many issues related to the Bill that we are not happy with. I recently met Superintendent Hallahan in Clonmel with my daughter, Councillor Máirín McGrath, and Councillor Niall Dennehy, and also met Superintendent Eddie Golden in the other part of south Tipperary. My point relates to Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir, Cashel, Rosegreen, Fethard and all such areas. I wish well Garda Phillip Ryan, who has retired after a long career of dedicated professional service in Clogheen Garda station. Clogheen is another area left without a garda. I also wish well and offer my ongoing support to Garda John Walsh and the other man beaten and attacked while out on his own dealing with dangerous criminals. Gardaí face that every day of the week. I support and salute the front-line gardaí who have to deal with all kinds of issues and measures. However, I have become critical of the management of the Garda, because I believe they are not bringing the message back to the Commissioner and the assistant commissioners up the line. The amalgamation of the Tipperary and Clare divisions was a disaster. I said that at the time. I opposed it and I continue to oppose it. We got a sop of a chief superintendent appointed. Yes, we did. The chief superintendent is not based in Tipperary. He might be based there in name but he is covering the whole region. That policy is a disaster. All the policies are. Now we are told increasingly that you cannot ring your local Garda station and that you have to ring 999, which service dispatches the local car. It could be 100 miles away. It is the same as what we have with the HSE and the ambulance service. All is not well in the Garda and we need many more reforms. We need more men on the ground, more resources and proper accountability. We then had the litany of disasters over the decades. Long before the Minister was even born, I would say, a man was murdered at a wedding in Offaly, Fr. Molloy. We have had many such cases. There is the woman from Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, whose son was killed on the road by a criminal who should not have been at large. She fought a gallant case and I understand it cost her nearly €200,000 to fight it. She is such a brave woman. There are many other cases across the country of people who cannot get justice. I was a victim of it myself in Dungarvan Garda station many years ago. That kind of rot must be rooted out and there must be fairness and respect for people. A businessman in Cork was physically abused by gardaí when he was on his combine harvester. They came to arrest him with a team of men you would not have going into a riot situation. There were 11, I believe. They tore him off his combine. Surely to God, a man who was never in trouble with the law could be dealt with better than that. It is before the courts, so I cannot say any more than that. There are incidents of bullying and intimidation. A young man, a Rossiter chap, was killed in the Garda station in Clonmel many years ago. We have had huge brutality issues in Dungarvan Garda station over the years, so all is not well in the system. I have supported the gardaí all my life and we depend on them, and I still support them, but the rot must be addressed. I met an inspector who recently retired from a different division altogether. He concurred with what I thought. There are cliques and things that go up along the line, with orders to behave or do whatever. That is not healthy. All is not well in the Garda Síochána. I want to turn to the situation with solicitors at the moment. I know the situation with legal aid has been totally abused. The principle of three strikes and you are out should be applied here. The situation whereby people cannot get solicitors now is not acceptable. Regarding the strike, I support the Minister in trying to have----- --- 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