Vol. 291 No. 15
asked the Minister for Justice if his attention has been drawn to an editorial in the recent issue of the Garda Review criticising the Government, the Department of Justice and the Garda authorities for the failure to take proper and adequate steps to tackle the problem of crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
89.
asked the Minister for Justice if his attention has been drawn to the contents of the editorial in the current issue of the Garda Review; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 88 and 89 together.
First of all, may I make it quite clear, that, despite the statement that appears in the Garda Review that it is published, and I quote “on behalf of the Garda Síochána”, it is not in fact an official publication but is, de facto at all events, the journal of the representative bodies or some of them and quite clearly its policy is to advance the interests of their members, just as the journal of any staff association would do. Issues such as the incidence of crime when raised in editorials or other articles in the review can be expected naturally enough to be appraised from a rather narrow perspective and should be assessed with that in mind.
While I think it is inevitable and indeed perhaps essential if it is to fulfil its purpose that a journal setting out to advance the interests of the members of the representative bodies will have a certain degree of partisanship in its approach, the current editorial is not the kind of commentary that I would have expected to see published in the Garda Review, above all at a time when the country is faced at one and the same time with a serious economic crisis and the need to maintain extremely costly security measures. To speak with such emphasis about Garda grievances without even a passing reference to the major improvements made in pay, allowances and conditions over the last six or seven years presents an unbalanced picture especially when so many of our people are out of work. Even more disturbing was the unreal picture of our country as a lawless dangerous place. I gave some facts to the House yesterday during the debate on the Estimates for my Department, facts which put the record straight and which I hope will reassure any citizen including members of the Garda themselves, who might have been disturbed by the tone of the article in question.
Apart from those important points, I am assured by the Garda authorities that some of the key statements in the editorial are either exaggerations or entirely wrong. I do not consider that any useful purpose would be served by any detailed analysis of all those statements but I will select one as an example. The editorial states that "in Border areas one comes across one-man check-points". In fact, if at least two men were not available for check-point duty—something which I am assured happens but rarely—the policy is that the check-point would not be manned at all. It has, however, happened very exceptionally that a man on check-point duty became ill and had to leave so that one man was left behind for a time. If that is what is meant by the operation of a one-man check-point, it is not in my view a fair description.
I am well aware of the extent of the crime problem and, if I had not otherwise been made aware of it, which in fact I had been, the representations made to me by Members of the House from various parts of the State would have left me in no doubt. The Government have recently decided to increase the strength of the force by yet a further 500 men—that is, in addition to such recruitment as will offset retirements and so on—and, at a time of such difficulty as is now prevailing, I think that is ample evidence of the Government's commitment to do what is reasonably possible in the matter.
