Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2022-01-27
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Mary Seery Kearney (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I welcome this as a technical Bill and a necessity. Listening to some of the commentary, I am chair of the drugs task force and gardaí always show off their fantastic resources. We reach out to them all the time in the community. Even when it is outside the community of our particular drugs task force and matters arise or in the wider area of my home constituency in Dublin South-Central, they are fantastic at intervening and responding. It is similar with the local policing forums. I commend them on that and take the opportunity to acknowledge that we have proceeds of crime and a flow back into the community that has been established as a desire and an outcome.
I ask for two things in that regard: first, in the context of supporting the local policing forums, that there be someone, even a shared person across a number of forums, a permanent administrator to liaise with that community, the local representatives and gardaí; and, second, that we put money behind the community crime impact assessment model of supporting families where there are drug deaths, coming in around that family in a very discreet way. It cannot be publicly talked about because it is so sensitive but much fantastic work is done on the ground. If we could direct the proceeds of crime moneys into communities for that purpose, it would be fantastic.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-01-27