Amendments Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, in the names of Senators Ruane, Black and Flynn are out of order.

I have given latitude to Members on this issue because it is so important. Some of what has been raised is not entirely relevant to the Bill but perhaps the Minister of State would like to respond.

When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Minister for agreeing to look at consulting with Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. It would be appropriate that that body come in on it and also that there be a balance for the priorities for the policing service. There is concern among members of An Garda Síochána that complaints are being made against them. I know they do not have trade unions but there is the idea of policing services and the gardaí themselves being represented. IHREC is worthy of inclusion but that relates to members of th…

I am just-----

I am just saying that a counterweight to IHREC would be issues and concerns about the behaviour of gardaí and An Garda Síochána. There is the issue of a counterbalance with regard to coming up with the priorities for the policing service in that there needs to be representation in some way, shape or form of the rank and file. There are many concerns regarding the lack of representation for them in the overall policing structure.

I will come back on that point around whether we are going to put in something like IHREC. The Minister spoke about the policing priorities. I am sure Members were listening to "Morning Ireland" this morning when people were talking about the structured retail theft that is going on at the moment, whereby gangs now are going into shops and literally clearing out sections. As was explained in the piece this morning, it is nothing to do with the issue of inflation or food poverty or anything like that. These are non-…

I am sticking to the Bill in terms of-----

I am saying that gardaí are being portrayed as not doing their jobs and that is because things like organised crime with regard to retail are not being prioritised. There are things that are not being prioritised. We have all sorts of other issues on which gardaí are saying resources are not being put into because the priorities are not there. A person from the retail authority said that an announcement was made regarding a new Garda initiative around retail crime. I am not too sure if it is because the Oireachtas …

Section 61(8) states: "The Authority shall, from time to time as it thinks appropriate, review the policing priorities and make such revisions thereto as it thinks fit". I ask that the Minister consider an amendment to or the setting out of a timeline on that. If something is not being measured, it is not being done. If we do not have a timeline, it might be enacted-----

It states "from time to time". We would normally have something every five or two years or an annual report. However, we are not having, at this moment in time-----

We are debating an entire section on setting priorities by the authority for police services. All we are told is that there will be a report, but that the authority will only, from time to time, as it thinks appropriate, review the policing priorities and make such revisions thereto as it thinks fit. I am discussing the section.

Regarding having a timeline for publishing something every year or five years, the Bill leaves it up to the Garda Commissioner, the national office and other groups, as the authority believes appropriate, to do that at a time of its choosing rather than at an appropriate time, as done by the Oireachtas. It would be appropriate for the Department to outline and make clear when the authority should do that, as opposed to stating that it would do so from time to time, as appropriate. We could then be left with priorit…

Section 63(1) states: “the Garda Commissioner shall, at the request of the Board and in accordance with this section, within 6 months after the coming into operation of section 11 and not later than the expiration of each subsequent 3 year period following that coming into operation, prepare and submit to the Minister a strategic plan for An Garda Síochána in respect of the period of 3 years immediately following the year in which the plan is so submitted." I go back to the issue that I raised under section 62 but …

As all politics-----

I will repeat what Senator Ardagh said, because all politics is local and Garda John O'Sullivan is from Kenmare, so I thank him for all his work.

I accept it is not relevant to the section. My colleague, Senator Chambers, raised the issue of the evaluation of the performance by An Garda Síochána. It is not clear how the evaluation would be done, what the strategic benchmarks would be or who would do it. Independence is needed for the evaluation but also in putting together the strategic plan and main objectives. I suggest each of the main objectives has to be allocated to the relevant superintendent or rank of the Garda or deputy Garda commissioner who would…

May I follow on from Senator Ardagh's appropriate proposal to make the plan available in a Garda station? The plan should also be made available in libraries throughout the State because people could study it there. While we are living in a digital age, the number of people who could access the plan on a website, in the knowledge it is available, is relatively limited. People will need to know the plan will also be available to them in printed form. This is where the Garda stations and libraries, and perhaps counci…

Yes. That is why I am asking about the libraries and supporting my colleague, Senator Ardagh, on her proposal on Garda stations.