Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16 ============================================================ John McGuinness (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny I welcome the legislation and assure the Minister that anything that strengthens the hand of the Garda force should be supported by this House and will be supported by me. As we pass this new legislation, or bring it through the House, we have to look at the impact of it on the day to day workings of an individual Garda member. We can identify the crimes and we can identify where we want to see improvements in the force but we have to continually remind ourselves that every time we ask a garda or gardaí to do something that will require resources, support, training and ongoing care in terms of their employment. My own opinion is that we are not giving enough resources to the gardai. We are not empowering them to implement every piece of legislation we pass here to the extent they should and could. We are leaving members of the force in a very vulnerable position when they are asked to do something, by way of legislation we in this House have passed, without the consideration of how they implement the piece of justice or the action that is required. That is where the problem in this legislation will commence. Maybe it is time we looked at reforming the structure of An Garda Síochána and at the processes within that structure. We need a modern force with all of the technology that is demanded of that force and with all of the protection necessary for each individual garda to carry out his or her duties in line with the legislation. Earlier, comments were made about community gardaí and we need more of those gardaí, certainly in Kilkenny. They were a great asset to building up trust and a relationship with local communities. A lot of those community gardaí have now been given other duties. That is causing a lot of difficulty in terms of the direct contact communities have with the local Garda force. Reference was made to drugs and to a detective or a garda on the beat tracking down those who are selling drugs within our communities and causing havoc right across the country. In Kilkenny and Carlow, it is no different. They are plagued by drugs on every street corner. Every young person has direct access to any amount of drugs. While the Garda shuts down one element of that transaction, another one opens. I know that in Kilkenny city, for example, drugs are freely traded in our local graveyard because it is close to the source. The public demands and deserves much better than to see this type of transaction going on, generally in a local community. It certainly should not be taking place in a graveyard, and it is common knowledge. The divisional areas, with respect to the drugs squad, the number of gardaí, how superintendents are appointed and so on, need to be reviewed. The basic employment of gardaí in terms of their pay structures and possibility for promotion within the force needs to be examined. An officer class within the Garda may be necessary in that type of structure. I do not know whether the number of volunteers within the Garda is going up or down. I am not sure but I see fewer of them involved in the force itself. I thought they were a good development. All of this is linked to the courts too. We can have all of the devices, intelligence and technology we need but if we do not have the courts supporting the Garda in sending criminals to prison for the full period of time, then we will have criminals coming back onto our streets far earlier than they should for a crime that has caused huge concern in the community in the first place. A lot of the trust in the Garda has been lost because of what happened in the past and because issues from the past were not dealt with appropriately. I think of Sergeant Maurice McCabe, who went through a process that took a huge time to get to the point of it being proven that he was right in the first place. Earlier in this debate, we heard mention of John Barrett who was dismissed from the force. I do not know the date that was put before Cabinet. I do not know what the process was thereafter, but it is interesting that none of us can find that information. Meanwhile, a man for whom I have great respect, who appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts, is trying to clear his name and to ensure the wrongs that were done to him while he was a member of the force, and a very good one, are dealt with. We have other whistleblowers who submitted protected disclosures that have not been dealt with. When members of the public see the television programme tonight or read interviews in the newspaper or when various other incidents are covered in the media generally, it does not help that they are not dealt with openly and in a transparent fashion in an effort to continue to build trust. If one goes back to the case of Martin Kenirons and that whole investigation, one wonders why a member of the force who could have substantiated everything that detective said was not interviewed. It is the job of this House to point out when something goes wrong and point out what members of the public are saying and what worries them. Policing worries them and the laws of the State, including the Bill we are passing, trouble them. They will support the force, but they are not prepared to let the likes of the cases of Martin Kenirons and John Barrett slip any more. I ask the Minister, as a step to build trust and show that we mean business through the gardaí, in terms of our support for them, to ensure the outstanding issues and protected disclosures are brought to the fore and dealt with in a very public fashion. That is the least that can be expected in terms of the people I have just mentioned. I would love to hear the Minister indicate what his intentions are in relation to all of this in his closing remarks and, likewise, in relation to local authorities and the complaints they receive when gardaí are called to disputes between tenants or disputes that emerge on the streets of our estates when the decent folk in those estates want to maintain law and order. They are trying to support the gardaí and when the gardaí arrive, they should have all of the equipment and manpower necessary to ensure the laws are upheld and people can feel safe in their own homes. I mention in particular older people because an awful lot of older people are living in cities and, indeed, in rural Ireland. They are on their own. I would love to see the structure of the Garda stations around rural Ireland and Carlow-Kilkenny being examined to see whether we can improve what we have at present. --- 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