Vol. 785 No. 5
56. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to reassure those with potential equality claims that their cases will continue to be processed in an effective way by the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and by the Workplace Relations Commission, into which the Equality Tribunal is to be merged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54483/12]
I can provide absolute assurance to persons with potential discrimination claims under employment equality legislation and equal status legislation that they will, on the merger of the Equality Tribunal into the new workplace relations service, continue to be able to pursue formal complaints before the new body and that these complaints will be dealt with as effectively as by the Equality Tribunal. In addition, the new Irish human rights and equality commission, to be established on the merger of the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission, will continue to provide advice and assistance to persons wishing to pursue such complaints, a role currently fulfilled by the authority. The new commission will have enhanced powers and functions and will be able to provide advice and assistance on both equality and human rights issues in an integrated way. These arrangements will make it easier for people to vindicate their rights by making our institutional arrangements clearer, thereby making it easier to navigate one's way around the system.
As the Minister is aware there has been serious concern in recent years at the cutbacks in funding to the Equality Authority. I know from previous answers from the Minister of his determination to ensure that the new human rights and equality commission will be properly resourced and independent in line with the Paris and Belgrade principles and so on. I listened to a powerful lecture yesterday evening by the President, Michael D. Higgins, on the overall subject. Will the Minister provide more detail about how an ordinary person, who may believe he is the victim of discrimination and who may wish to raise a case, will be resourced? Will independent assistance be given to him and will he be protected? What will be the role and function of the Equality Authority in ensuring this continues in the new structure to be established?
Before turning to the specific question raised by the Deputy, I wish to make a number of points which are important. The functions of the new Irish human rights and equality commission will involve a levelling upwards rather than downwards of the functions of the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission. The purpose of the merger is to strengthen protection of human rights and equality in Ireland. Likewise, reform of the workplace relations institutions aims to deliver a world class workplace relations service and framework, incorporating all functions of the Equality Tribunal, which will serve the needs of employers, employees and consumers and provide maximum value for money. I fully support this reform. The Deputy will be aware that these two initiatives are being undertaken as part of the radical streamlining of State bodies, a key deliverable of the public service reform plan.
In the context of the workplace relations service, the Deputy will also be aware that this provision and the establishment of the service come within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Equality Authority remains in place and procedures will remain the same until such time as the new body has been put in place. The new body, in respect of which I hope to publish the legislation as early as possible in the new year, will provide all of the backup currently provided by the Equality Authority for individuals who have a complaint in the equality area. The change being brought about means that instead of these issues being dealt with by the Equality Tribunal, they will be dealt with by the workplace relations service, which is important because on occasion a dispute or allegation in the labour law area can end up before two forums, namely, the Equality Authority and Employment Appeals Tribunal. The intention is to provide for synergy and a greater focus in this area, which will ensure that where more than one issue arises from an individual's employment, the matter can be dealt with by one body. In the equality area the backup and assistance currently provided by the Equality Authority will continue to be available under the aegis of the new body.
57. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to introduce legislation to recognise Traveller ethnicity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54485/12]
I have no immediate plans to introduce such legislation, although, as I have indicated in the past, serious consideration is being given to the issue. I am aware of the long-standing wish of many Travellers that such status be granted, but there are some divergent views. I am also aware that the previous Government was of the view that Travellers were not an ethnic minority. Dialogue between staff of my Department and representatives of Traveller organisations has taken place in the past on the issue, for example, during the course of a seminar on the third State report under the Council of Europe Convention on National Minorities. In addition, earlier this year the National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee, on which sit representatives of all the national Traveller organisations, as well as officials of the Department of Justice and Equality, established a sub-group specifically to consider the issue of Traveller ethnicity. Arising from the work of this group, among other things, a conference was held in Dublin Castle, supported by my Department. At this conference various aspects of the ethnicity subject were considered by a wide spectrum of opinion.
I remind the House that Travellers in Ireland have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution. The key anti-discrimination measures, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts, specifically identify Travellers by name as a protected group. The Equality Act 2004 which transposed the EU racial equality directive, applied all of the protections of the directive across all of the nine grounds contained in the legislation, including the ground of membership of the Traveller community. All of the protections afforded to ethnic minorities in EU directives and international conventions apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to these international instruments explicitly protects Travellers.
I inform the Deputy that consideration of this issue remains ongoing with a view to ensuring full analysis of all aspects of the granting of ethnic status to Travellers is available to the Government when coming to a decision on the matter. I expect to publish the report of the conference early in the new year.
There has been foot dragging on this issue for a long time. Coming from the Traveller tradition - my mother and grandmother are Travellers - it is critically important that we define the rights and responsibilities of the Traveller community. This issue relates to their rights in terms of culture and their unique place in Irish society. When these have been firmly established and guaranteed, we can then deal effectively with the issue of responsibilities, as it applies to every citizen of the State. What consideration is being given to this matter? Is the Minister moving towards defining the Traveller community as an ethnic group within Irish society and has he been involved in consultations with the representatives of the Traveller community on the matter?
The purpose of the conference to which I referred was to allow for a wide exchange of views. I understand two speakers from the Traveller community spoke in favour of Travellers being identified as an ethnic minority, while one other spoke against this. Debate and discussion on the issue are ongoing. We must be careful that in taking this route we do not make decisions that will have unintended consequences. Other Departments are involved in the consultation process. It is hoped that when the report of the conference is published in the new year, it will lead to further discussion. I am conscious of the issues involved. However, we must ensure decisions are not made that separate Travellers from the wider community. All of the legislation to which I made reference, including the anti-discrimination legislation and the European Union directive which we have transposed in a specific way within legislation, has been designed to ensure Travellers are not discriminated as part of the wider community. An important question is what advantages there would be to the Traveller community being named as an ethnic minority. For example, there are particular difficulties within the Traveller community in that the estimated life span of Travellers is substantially lower than that of members of the settled community. The question that arises is whether a separate ethnic identity would bring about a change in this regard, or is there a need for other issues to be addressed? I am conscious that this is an important issue. However, I want to ensure it does not become a flag of convenience in that if a change is effected, the assumption will be that all is well with the world and there are no other issues to be addressed. I also want to ensure that if we go down this route, members of the Traveller community favour it and that it will not give rise to unintended consequences and create unexpected difficulties. This issue requires wide consultation with other Departments.
58. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the progress made in his Department's investigation into the writing off of penalty points on certain persons' records; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55464/12]
68. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he has received information regarding the write off of a number of motoring offences for a person (details supplied). [54508/12]
96. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to alter the method in which motoring offences are followed up by the Gardaí; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54497/12]
104. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the date on which he received information regarding the write off of substantial numbers of motoring offences by some Gardaí. [54507/12]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 58, 68, 96 and 104 together.
The allegations referred to by the Deputies are not that some people have had penalty points written off, but that in a number of cases members of the Garda Síochána have inappropriately cancelled fixed charge notices, mainly for speeding. The allegations appear to be made on the basis of records of cancellation on the Garda PULSE system.
Fixed charge notices are an alternative to prosecution and give a motorist the opportunity to acknowledge the offence, pay the fixed charge and, where the offence is a penalty points offence, incur the appropriate penalty points. If the motorist does not pay the fixed charge, he or she will in the normal course be prosecuted for the alleged offence.
With regard to the cancellation of fixed charge notices, it appears from media reports of recent days and comments made in Dáil Éireann that there is an assumption that any termination of a fixed charge notice is illegal and that any individual who is the recipient of such a notice which is subsequently cancelled is being afforded special treatment. Both assumptions are incorrect. I am concerned that the outcome of the investigation being conducted into the allegations is being unfairly prejudged and I urge caution in this regard.
As I said earlier, there are circumstances where a fixed charge notice may be cancelled in accordance with Garda procedures drawn up in the light of legislative exemptions and prosecutorial guidelines. Termination or cancellation occurs where it is believed the evidence would not sustain a prosecution or a prosecution would not be appropriate, fair or proportionate. Decisions on terminations or cancellations are governed by Garda policies and procedures, framed around the legislative and prosecutorial guidelines issued by the DPP.
Garda superintendents, district officers, inspectors or acting district officers have discretion to authorise cancellation in appropriate circumstances of fixed charge notices. These can include situations where, for example, exemptions apply to emergency vehicles, or where there are evidential difficulties, such as where the registration number registered by a speed camera does not correspond to the vehicle in question, or where there are emergency medical circumstances such as, for example, a medical certificate relating to the wearing of seatbelts, a sick child being driven to hospital, an imminent birth, a medical professional rushing to a sick or elderly patient or a driver of an ambulance response vehicle. Access to terminate a fixed charge processing incident through PULSE is restricted to users with a rank of inspector or higher.
I can confirm that these allegations were forwarded to my Department by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in September and, subsequently, by the Department of the Taoiseach, also in September. Following consideration of the documentation the allegations were forwarded to the Garda Commissioner in October last. The Garda Commissioner has appointed an assistant commissioner to conduct an examination and to report on the allegations. I have received an interim report from the Commissioner but I will not be making any comment on any of the allegations until the final report is available. I stress that these allegations are being taken seriously and are being thoroughly investigated. It would be premature and wrong to assume that all of these cancellations of fixed charge notices were inappropriate. I would caution against any rush to judgment before we know all of the facts. As the Garda Commissioner has said, this would be unfair both to members of the force and the motorists concerned. Let us await the outcome of the investigation which, as the Commissioner has said, will be both comprehensive and rigorous. I have every confidence that the investigation directed by the Commissioner into the allegations will be conducted with the utmost professionalism.
I have three Deputies to call and I ask them to be brief as we are almost out of time. Also, this matter is the subject of a Topical Issue to be debated later. I call Deputy Daly first.
Nobody is arguing that there should not be exemptions but rather about how the exemptions are applied. The idea that tens of thousands of cases - I have seen the evidence of it - have simply been written off for legitimate reasons is questionable and is in breach of Garda regulations which actually specify that the criteria are very limited. I do not know how the Minister can say that if people write to the Garda Síochána they can get their penalty points written off when in actual fact if people do write they are told that the system is based on motorists taking their penalty points and if they are not happy, going to court to debate the issue in open court. I ask the Minister to confirm the basis of the investigation he has launched. How many cases are being investigated and what are the findings of the interim report?
In June last year the Minister for Justice and Equality said that "Any member or civilian employee of An Garda Síochána who wishes to report in confidence about corruption and malpractice can be assured that any such report will be taken seriously and extensive protections will be given to him or her". The two gardaí who came forward in January with allegations - not assumptions - of over 100,000 write-offs have received very little feedback and have had no recognition or protection. They have been ignored by the Government. The Minister is now trying to pretend that the Government heard nothing about this until September but the Minister first heard of this in January. It was raised with him again before Easter and in June and the Taoiseach was told about it in July. The Government has been sitting on its hands and this looks like a cover up.
I never cease to be amazed at people who are consumed by conspiracy theories.
Maybe their theories are right.
I say to the Deputies yet again, very clearly, that the allegations they are referring to were made to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of the Taoiseach in September. They were referred to my Department in September and in October they were referred to the Garda Commissioner and they are being thoroughly investigated. Deputy Daly has made the sweeping claim that all of the tickets allegedly cancelled were cancelled in breach of Garda regulations.
I did not say that.
I wonder how she knows that because there are quite clearly a broad range of circumstances in which tickets can be properly cancelled and I have already given detail of those. I say to both Deputies that there will be no cover up, on my watch, of anything. I have the greatest confidence in the Garda Commissioner to ensure that these matters will be and are currently being properly investigated. There will also, on my watch, be no special treatment afforded to any individual whether he or she is a celebrity, a pal of someone or for any other reason. On my watch, the law will be properly applied. It is important that in dealing with this issue, like others, the gardaí have some discretion when, for example, a ticket is issued in circumstances where perhaps it should not have been issued - if it was the wrong driver or the wrong vehicle, the individual was driving an emergency service vehicle or a doctor was going to deal with an emergency in a hospital. There is a broad range of circumstances in which the gardaí can quite properly exercise discretion with regard to a ticket charge that was issued. I will give Deputy Daly an example. I can see the Deputy jumping up and down, shouting in circumstances in which the husband of a young pregnant woman who was about to give birth was sent a ticket because he got her to hospital just in time. In circumstances like that, of course the gardaí should be able to exercise their discretion.
We are not talking about such cases.
That is not what we are talking about at all.
We are talking about 100,000 cases.
That is an awful lot of pregnancies.
The Minister is waffling now.
The numbers involved seem to grow every time Deputy Wallace says something.
We have seen the evidence of it.
The letter that I have seen, with certain allegations in it, is the letter that has been furnished to the Garda Commissioner. All of the allegations contained in that letter, I am advised, are being fully and properly investigated. As I said to Deputy Mac Lochlainn, it is likely that this investigation will continue into the new year because of the nature of the allegations made. When the outcome of the investigation is known, I will make it known to the House.
