asked the Minister for Justice if arrangements can be made to have additional gardaí allocated to east coast seaside resorts during summer months in order to assist the overworked local gardaí.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Holiday Resorts Supervision.
14.
Each year, arrangements are put into operation to provide extra Garda assistance at seaside resorts during the summer season, so as to ensure an adequate police service.
The Commissioner, Garda Síochána, informs me that the same will apply this year with regard to all areas, including the east coast.
Would the Minister not agree that in many of those holiday resorts, and even at some outings such as beer festivals, there is a complete breakdown of law and order? Groups of thugs—whether from Dublin or anywhere else—should not be allowed to do what individuals are not allowed to do. There are not enough police to deal with groups of 15 to 20 thugs. In Kilkenny, recently, they had to close all the shops and put those people out in the street.
This might relevantly arise on the next question which appears to deal with these matters.
15.
asked the Minister for Justice if the gardaí have authority to arrest people who invade holiday resorts and behave in a way which is objectionable to local residents and holiday-makers and whose presence injures the tourist trade in the area.
The fact that behaviour is objectionable to local residents or injurious to the tourist trade is not in itself a ground for arrest under the law. However, such behaviour could in certain circumstances be a criminal offence in respect of which the Garda Síochána have a power to arrest without warrant.
Would the Minister consider the taking out of public houses of glasses and bottles and the breaking of them on the street as desirable behaviour? Sometimes the bottles are thrown at passers-by. Is that not a breach of the law? Would the Minister consider having police reinforcements in certain areas to arrest the culprits and to deal with them as they should be dealt with before the matter gets out of hand?
The commissioner makes special arrangements each year to bring in additional gardaí to seaside resorts. It is not possible for the gardaí to counter every incident of rowdyism but, in general, the gardaí can control quite adequately.
Can the gardaí apprehend people camping on the beach in cases where there is no bye-law prohibiting it?
To my knowledge, it is not a criminal offence to camp on a beach.
The Minister knows what I am getting at. If the people creating a nuisance are camping on the beach, can the gardaí go in and apprehend them?
It would be for the local authority to take steps to prevent camping on beaches if that leads to objectionable behaviour. The gardaí are not entitled to arrest people for activities that are not a breach of the criminal law even though they may be morally reprehensible.
We all know that. Where there is not a bye-law prohibiting people from camping on the beach, are the gardaí free to go in there and to apprehend them while they are in those camps if they are misbehaving themselves?
Not if their activities do not constitute a breach of the criminal law. The solution to the matter is that the local authorities should take steps to see that this is not allowed. That is a matter for the local authorities, not the Garda.
The question I asked has not been answered. Does the law enable the police to go on to the beach where there is not a bye-law? That is what I am asking.
The police are entitled to go on to any beach at any time.
They say they are not, to apprehend people.
That does not mean they can arrest people.
That is what I asked the Minister.
The police are not entitled to arrest people, first of all unless they have a warrant, and if they have not a warrant they cannot arrest somebody——
That applies no matter where they are.
——unless his activity comes within the category of offences which allow of arrest without warrant.
That applies no matter where they are.
Yes, it does.
I am talking about the beach. Is the beach exceptional?
No, the beach is not exceptional.
The Garda say it is.
Would the Minister consider bathing in the nude in public a breach of the Act?
Which Act?
Surely indecent exposure is a breach of the law and an offence against the law. Is the Minister aware that at the Kilkenny Festival three police came down to arrest three or four people who had been bathing and that they were attacked by the crowd and had to rush away as quickly as they could? Would the Minister not think it a better idea to have telephoto television cameras to take photographs and have the evidence against those people and arrest them afterwards?
There is no beach in Kilkenny.
If the Garda had evidence of behaviour on the lines indicated by the Deputy and if they knew the identity of the people concerned, no doubt the appropriate charges would be made against these people afterwards.
They went down and they had to run for their lives.
They would want a search warrant.
They would have nothing to search.