Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 November 2016
35. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Garda stations and the number of gardaí in each station in County Clare on 31 October 2010 and 31 October 2016; the proportion of the proposed 800 additional recruits in 2017 who are likely to be assigned to County Clare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34683/16]
View answerI ask the Tánaiste to outline the number of gardaí in each of the stations in Clare on 31 October 2010 and 31 October 2016 and to indicate the proposed number of gardaí from the 800 additional officers to be recruited in 2017 who will be assigned to County Clare. I do not expect the Tánaiste to provide the exact breakdown by station in that regard, but she might give me an idea of how many additional gardaí will be available to the area concerned.
In terms of allocating gardaí, it is important, in the first instance, that recruitment continues and that we have more gardaí coming out of Templemore. As I said, we have over 150 coming out on Thursday next. It is important that they have proper supervision to begin with. The O'Higgins report identified that when gardaí are being trained, it is really important that they are properly supervised when they go out into the community. We want to ensure that will be the case.
I have provided to the Deputy details on the Clare division, in October 2010 and 2016, respectively. The number of gardaí in the Clare Garda division, as of 31 October 2010, was 331 and in 2016, it was 292. The number of officers at stations throughout the country is building back up to the level it was at when the boom was at its height. Of course, that proved not to be sustainable and recruitment stopped. This resulted in the difficulties the Deputy has been referencing. As of now, there are 292 gardaí in the 17 stations in the Clare division.
As already stated, we plan further recruitment for the reserve, which will help, and ongoing recruitment this year. I have given the Deputy the breakdown in respect of the number of Garda stations in the Clare division.
While it may be difficult for the Tánaiste to provide the numbers that will be available from the 2017 cohort, I would appreciate if she could provide me with that number. If it is not available to her, perhaps she might at least recognise the need to deploy additional gardaí in Clare. The figures the Tánaiste provided show a significant drop of 39 in the number of gardaí serving in Clare between 2010 and 2016. While I accept that the crime figures have improved in some categories, many categories have shown increases. Sexual offences, theft and assault all are up in 2016 relative to 2014.
It is vital that Clare gets its fair share of any additional recruitment coming on stream, not only over the lifetime of the Government but right from the start. As recruits become available in 2017, I will be making a strong case that Clare be included in the context of their deployment. We need to see Garda levels back to what they once were. I accept and recognise the reasons numbers have fallen. There is no point talking about the historical aspect of it. Let us look to the future. Over the period to which I refer, nine stations in Clare were closed. One aspect difficult for me to have to accept is that the number of community gardaí was halved during the period in question. There is demand and there is a need. I ask the Tánaiste to give consideration to the dispersal of the new recruits.
Deputy Dooley knows as well as I do that all front-line services were affected by the economic disaster that was visited upon the country. Thankfully, we are now recovering. In the context of policing, that recovery has given rise to the new recruitment I have outlined.
It is worthwhile noting, in terms of the deployment of probationary gardaí, that the Garda Commissioner has deployed gardaí right across the country to almost every division so that every area has benefited from the recruitment. Clearly, every Deputy wants to see it accelerated in his or her area and to have more community police in place.
The recruitment drive next year will ensure that there will be more gardaí available. However, I believe that we have to look carefully - this is what the Garda Inspectorate is examining - at the deployment of such resources. It has to be based on the reality of situations on the ground and the crime figures and population trends have to be analysed. I repeat, as Deputy Dooley will be well aware, that it is the Garda Commissioner who makes these decisions. I can be responsible for policy, budget and recruitment, but it is the Garda Commissioner who will make the detailed decisions about where gardaí should be deployed throughout the country. That is as it should be.
I accept that. I recognise that the Tánaiste's role is at a policy level. It was her predecessor who introduced the policy of smart policing that led to the closure of Garda stations - I recognise that there was a necessity to do that in some instances. His idea at the time was that gardaí driving around in rural areas was an adequate policing system. I disagree fundamentally with that because I do not believe that it either gave confidence to local communities or that it was appropriate to address the risk associated with mobile criminal gangs. Nothing substitutes for gardaí remaining in an area, being close to the people and having a connection with them. Smart policing, as I see it, based on the way the previous Minister defined it as gardaí driving through rural areas and making something like one visit per week, is not the appropriate model. I hope that, through the Tánaiste's good offices and her different approach to the Department of Justice and Equality, she would impress upon the Commissioner the necessity to have a much greater link between the Garda and the community. That speaks to the necessity to have community policing front and centre in the context of the overall policing strategy, a matter in respect of which the Tánaiste does, in consultation with the Commission, have an input.
I would add to what Deputy Dooley says that what is really important is that gardaí work in partnership with local community groups and businesses. We see some good models throughout the country where they are working, for example, with the local taxi drivers, businesses, community text alert groups, community alert and neighbourhood watch. We have increased the funding for the community alert and neighbourhood watch schemes this year in order that they can be even more effective. It is built on voluntary efforts, and that is really important. That is part of protecting rural communities.
The protection of rural communities was a key consideration for me in the broad review of the response to burglary and related crimes that I initiated in early 2015 and also in the new legislation I introduced, which means that the courts have the opportunity to impose concurrent sentences on those repeat offenders.
It was a huge concern to people in both urban and rural communities to see repeat offenders not serving the length of sentences they believed they ought to serve, given the number of offences in which they were involved. We brought in the new legislation with the support of everybody in the House and that has been very important.
