Alan Kelly
Question:4. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the policing reform implementation programme office. [36606/20]
View answerTuesday, 1 December 2020
Questions (4)
Oral answers (13 contributions)
In September 2018, the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland published its report outlining a clear vision and roadmap for strengthening An Garda Síochána and the broader national framework for policing, security and community safety. In December 2018, the Government approved A Policing Service for the Future as the plan to implement the commission's report. The plan was developed in co-operation with stakeholders from across the public service, including, in particular, the then Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda Síochána.
In line with the approach recommended in the commission's report, an implementation group on policing reform was established in late 2018, with a former member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland as its independent chairman, and given collective responsibility for the delivery of the plan. The group has held 21 meetings to date. To help guide its work and act as a clearing house where particular blockages are being experienced, a high-level steering board on policing reform, chaired by the Secretary General to the Government, was also established. The policing reform implementation programme office, PRIPO, which is based in the Department of the Taoiseach, drives implementation of A Policing Service for the Future. PRIPO has been resourced with appropriate expertise in the areas of project management, policing, justice and public service reform. It monitors progress on the implementation of the plan, supports the work of the implementation group on policing reform and keeps the high-level steering board on policing reform and the Government apprised of the progress being made. The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality provides requisite political oversight of implementation of the plan.
A Policing Service for the Future is a living document which is reviewed and updated by the programme office as required. This helps to maintain ambitious but realistic commitments, timeframes and milestones. A Policing Service for the Future is broken down into four stages of implementation, namely, the building blocks phase, which is of six months' duration; the launching phase, which is also of six months' duration; the scaling phase, which is of 18 months' duration; and the consolidation phase, which is of 12 to 18 months' duration, as currently envisaged. The building blocks and launching phases have been completed and have seen a number of achievements. They include the roll-out of a new operating model for An Garda Síochána, designed to streamline Garda administration and provide a more visible, responsive and localised policing service to communities nationwide. An Garda Síochána has established and strengthened resourcing of a human rights unit and re-established the strategic human rights advisory committee. The National Security Analysis Centre, NSAC, has been established.
In addition, the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2019 has been enacted, which gives gardaí access to the Workplace Relations Commission for the first time and provides for a modern industrial relations framework within An Garda Síochána. There has also been progress on legislative reform in a number of other areas. Legislation is being drafted in the following areas: the use of recording devices, including body-worn cameras; the codification of legislation defining police powers of arrest, search and detention; and a new coherent framework for the governance and oversight of An Garda Síochána.
Progress in 2020 has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I have been encouraged to see the responsiveness and flexibility shown by An Garda Síochána in dealing with the demands of this unprecedented situation.
The implementation group on policing reform and the programme have been actively engaged with key stakeholders to ensure continued momentum on reform insofar as possible under the current circumstances. The third phase of A Policing Service for our Future, the scaling phase, has now commenced.
I hope the Taoiseach believed all that. The Labour Party established the Policing Authority and it will do everything it can to ensure that it, or a version of it, is maintained into the future. My colleague, Deputy Howlin, drove that development. Successive reports of the authority, whose work I commend, showed that An Garda Síochána was not moving at the pace it should. One of the most important functions of the Policing Authority is the power to appoint senior gardaí, instead of the appointments being made through the Garda Commissioner and signed off, in some cases, by the Cabinet. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland recommended that the Policing Authority be disbanded and replaced by a new body. Fine Gael agreed with its recommendation. Under the plan, the power to promote senior gardaí would be given to the Garda Commissioner while other Policing Authority powers would be transferred to an internal Garda board.
The Taoiseach opposed that, I opposed that and Sinn Féin opposed that. We believe An Garda Síochána needs less, not more, of an in-house policing mentality. We do not believe that all the lessons that have been learned over recent years will continue to be learned if there is a situation where the power to appoint senior gardaí is back in-house. Does the Taoiseach intend to implement the O'Toole report or does he intend to implement the minority report, which is the report we support and keeps the appointment of such senior people with a policing authority? I accept there must be rationalisation of a number of Garda organisations, but what is the Taoiseach's position on this key point? I do not see anything in the legislative programme on this issue. What is the Government's position regarding the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland report and particularly the role of the Policing Authority?
I wish to reflect on the new operating model for An Garda Síochána, which the Taoiseach correctly said is designed to provide more visibility and a more responsive and localised policing service to communities. This is not the reality on the ground and certainly not in the constituency I represent. The reality is that there is a lack of Garda presence, especially in the evening and at night. There is no community garda available after 7 p.m. This is an operational and resource issue. There is still a lack of personnel in the system. There is also the fact that anti-social behaviour has increased over recent months. Granted, it has been a problem for some time, but in the course of the Covid emergency, reports of anti-social behaviour in some areas have skyrocketed. Call-outs can often take hours because there is a lack of Garda cars. In my home neighbourhood of Cabra, the Garda station closes at 9 p.m. and it appears there is no prospect of that decision being reversed.
What are the measurement criteria used by the implementation office in its appraisal of progress, or lack of progress, in policing reform plans?
I did not intend to speak on this issue but Deputy McDonald referred to anti-social behaviour. It is an issue we all encounter and it can be difficult to address, particularly during the pandemic. We get reports of people complaining of large groups of young people gathering and so forth. There are two ways to deal with that. We can blame the young people and take a coercive approach, which I do not believe works. On the other hand, we can recruit people directly from the community to work in community and youth outreach projects. This is an area in which we have failed spectacularly. In fact, I believe we have gone backwards and made situations worse when we could have improved and dealt with them in a way that does not cause problems and conflicts in the community.
I can think of several such youth outreach projects in our area that were simply closed down. Often people who were from the community and knew the young people might not always have had certain formal qualifications and that was sometimes used as an excuse to get rid of them. Inevitably, the situation worsened when the projects were closed down. The people who were in the projects would say that there would be an anti-social problem in an area if a project closed down and, lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. As well as looking at the policing side of it, we need to consider seriously recruiting youth and community outreach workers from the community on a significant scale.
On Deputy Kelly's question, that issue is being examined in the context of the implementation of the commission's reports in terms of the governance-----
What about the previous Government's position?
The Deputy should look at the programme for Government, for example, on the precise nature of this in terms of balancing governance with accountability. I am not so sure that the Policing Authority worked, to be honest. I do not mean that in any way to apportion blame, but there were some issues regarding role definition-----
That is true of any organisation.
-----in terms of whether it was about governance or accountability and who was ultimately responsible for the governance of An Garda Síochána. We need to reflect on that continually.
I take the Deputy's point that one does not want an in-house culture that promotes certain people in certain areas. One wants an arm's-length, independent, objective approach to recruitment-----
Agreed.
-----and especially with senior appointments. That is accepted. That has been in place in recent times. We agree on the principles in this, but we must get a model and ensure it works. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland put a great deal of work into it. I and all Deputies engaged with it, irrespective of whether we were in or out of Government.
Agreed.
The esprit de corps of the commission was a positive one. It was designed to transform. I believe the most important areas are recruitment and education. That is in the next phase and needs a radical change, in my view. We must broaden the experiences of people who apply to An Garda Síochána.
On the other questions, the recruitment is ongoing. A report from the future of policing implementation group was put before the Cabinet today. For example, there will be a greater emphasis on diversity in recruitment and recruitment from minority communities to serve in An Garda Síochána. That is important as well.
Regarding anti-social behaviour, I believe the operational plan is working and appears to be developing. We are recruiting continually to increase the numbers and, to be fair, the numbers working in An Garda Síochána have increased significantly over recent years. A significant allocation was made in the budget for hundreds of additional recruits for An Garda Síochána in 2021 and beyond.
I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett's analysis regarding the community dimension to this. First, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a very difficult time for young people in this country. The report just published by the Central Statistics Office shows that the lowest levels of satisfaction with the quality of life are in the 19 to 24 year old age group. If a person was a leaving certificate student last year, his or her year was undermined and upended. On moving to college, that person's first year was not what he or she expected it to be and he or she is approaching January without having had a proper college year.
No one has travelled this year because of Covid. It has been difficult for all age cohorts, but it has been particularly difficult for young people. Jobs have not been as available either because of the various lockdowns and severe restrictions, so outlets where people could get work have not materialised. If one is young, one wants to be out and about. Therefore, there has to be a very multifaceted approach to helping young people to get through this period.
To be fair to An Garda Síochána, in areas where we had anti-social behaviour or difficulties in the past we got the best results by adopting a community-led approach with community gardaí on the ground working with young people and youth workers.
I recently met Deputies McAuliffe and Lahart and the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, on the issue of scramblers in certain communities in Dublin. The Deputies propose to introduce legislation. It reminded me of a period 20 years ago when we had difficulties in communities with joyriding and so on. The development of An Garda Síochána's community model helped to deal effectively with situations in communities. We must reinvest in communities and rebuild the infrastructure in certain communities to support community development. Something like a modern version of the revitalising areas by planning, investment and development, RAPID, programme is required. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, is keen on that. There was a meeting yesterday of the Cabinet subcommittee on social affairs and equality and we identified areas like that for further work and development. We need to build up a multidisciplinary team of supports in communities that have challenges to help those of all ages to deal with them.