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Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission Issues

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 September 2012

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Questions (8)

Michael Moynihan

Question:

8. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the progress that has been made under Operation Fiachla; the amount spent to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39084/12]

View answer

Oral answers (3 contributions)

The Minister is informed by the Garda authorities that Operation Fiacla is running for 12 months initially, with effect from February 2012. The operation is the subject of regular monitoring and review by senior Garda management and is focused on identifying and targeting gangs involved in burglaries around the country so as to disrupt their activities and bring them before the courts.

Operation Fiacla is intelligence driven and specific burglary initiatives have been implemented in each Garda region to target suspect offenders. These initiatives optimise the use of existing structures and local Garda management ensure that all personnel are fully briefed on the initiative, with divisional crime management teams playing a key co-ordination and implementation role. The Minister is further informed that more than 1,700 persons have been arrested and that almost 1,000 persons have been charged to date as part of the operation, reflecting the substantial efforts being made to tackle this problem by the Garda.

In regard to the cost of the operation, it is understood that a separate dedicated budget has not been established for this initiative and it would necessitate a disproportionate amount of Garda time and resources to calculate this. However, every effort is being made by Garda management, under the remit of the respective regional policing plans prepared under Operation Fiacla, for duty associated with these initiatives to be conducted as part of routine, rostered, policing activities.

The Minister is conscious of the deep distress burglary can cause to householders and to the broader impact it can have in terms of fear of crime in our communities and, therefore, he very much welcomes the fact that the Garda Commissioner is deploying the substantial resources available to him in a targeted approach to confront those engaged in this form of criminality. The Minister expects that the successes of Operation Fiacla will be reflected in future crime statistics published by the Central Statistics Office in regard to burglaries.

I am sure the Minister of State will agree, as we all would, that some of the recent high profile aggravated burglaries in rural Ireland have been particularly shocking. They were perpetrated against elderly citizens, old people living alone in their twilight years. There was one in Wicklow recently and a particularly vicious one in Pallasgreen in County Limerick, where elderly people were tied up, beaten up and held captive in their own homes. Operation Fiacla is a good initiative and I am anxious to elicit what types of results it is yielding.

I take this opportunity to refer to the agenda of the closure of rural Garda stations. The issue is about having a police presence in rural Ireland. If the Minister and the Government are to continue to pursue the agenda of closing rural Garda stations, the effectiveness of these types of operations will be diluted. While recognising that many rural Garda stations operate on a very limited part-time basis, they provide a police presence and such a presence is a deterrent. We are aware of the mobile nature of the gangs who commit these types of crimes. For example, in the case of many of the crimes that were carried out in County Limerick, the offenders came up to the county from the Minister of State's city of Cork. That was the intelligence the Garda Síochána could reveal to us.

Another issue is the non-replacement of Garda vehicles. These people are mobile, yet we have a crazy situation where the Garda Síochána are not equipped with the necessary vehicles to combat this crime. I have said on record that in some parts of Ireland the Garda is unfortunately operating like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme. The Garda is not resourced adequately to deal with these people who are sophisticated and mobile. The upholding of law and crime prevention is the second most important issue after the economy and jobs. We would probably all agree on that point.

Can the Minister of State advise how many arrests have been made under Operation Fiacla to date if she has that information available? Did she say there is a dedicated budget for this? How much is that budget and how long is it envisaged it will remain in place? Will it roll over into next year and the following year? Can some of that budget be expended on capital items such as vehicle replacement?

The people who carry out these burglaries, particularly on elderly people, are reprehensible. It is the most cowardly act anyone could commit. That needs to be said. To date, 1,700 people have been arrested and 1,000 people have already been charged.

As I stated, the Commissioner feels it would take a disproportionate amount of Garda time to calculate the resources in the dedicated budget. That is being done but I do not have that information here. I assume that it will be in the Commissioner's plan to be presented to the Minister by the end of October. There is a dedicated budget and the Deputy will note from the figures I presented that clearly Operation Fiacla is working. He will agree that we cannot have a garda on every lane or every street corner. We all know that. The issue is about people being conscious and aware of the different types of information that are available, such as the texting service the Garda is very interested in putting forward in terms of suspicious vehicles being seen in different areas. It is all about that, but clearly the operation the Commissioner has put in place has managed to deter many people whose intent was not honourable.

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