Pa Daly
Question:3. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Justice to make a statement on the implementation of policing reform in the area of non-core duties. [43776/23]
View answerWednesday, 11 October 2023
Questions (3)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
This question gets down to police presence on the streets. Gardaí tell me that a lot of their time is taken up, apart from paperwork and inputting, doing non-police work. Five years ago, the Commission for the Future of Policing in Ireland suggested a lot of reform in non-core duties and taking gardaí of all levels away from non-core duties. What steps are being taken to implement that report?
I agree with the Deputy and all members of An Garda Síochána who say they do work others could be doing and could free up valuable police time and make sure we have as many visible gardaí out on the beat as possible. We are committed to doing that. Strengthening An Garda Síochána is at the core of everything we are focused on at the moment. When it comes to this budget, we will continue to provide them with the resources they need. As I said earlier, there is a €2.31 billion budget for An Garda Síochána, up 23% since 2020. We have also allowed for a 66% increase in the training allowance, which will rise to €305 this week. This is progress on recruitment, coupled with an increase in civilianisation. About 900 Garda members have been freed up for front-line policing duties since 2015. With the allocations in this year's budget, I expect that number to increase again. I assure the Deputy, in terms of core duties, that completing the implementation of the report of the Commission for the Future of Policing in Ireland is a priority for me. Recommendation No. 20 of the commission's report relates to the release of Garda members from non-core duties. Work is ongoing in my Department to progress this recommendation. There are a number of different areas on which we are focused. In particular, the report recommended that all immigration duties carried out by An Gardaí Síochána be transferred to civilian responsibility. We have seen how well that has worked in Dublin Airport with the border management unit now effectively taking on that role but working very closely with members of An Garda Síochána, who are still based in the airport. We have engaged with An Garda Síochána on the overall scope of immigration operations to transfer to the Department and work is currently underway to develop a roadmap to see how that would progress. There is Cork immigration, Shannon Airport and a number of other areas in that regard in which progress can be made. This will involve the transfer of work relating to the nationwide registration of residence permission and the renewal of such permissions from An Garda Síochána to the immigration function of my Department. A number of additional activities currently undertaken by gardaí at Dublin Airport have been identified to be transferred to civilian resources and consideration will be given to how immigration functions are undertaken at the other ports and airports I mentioned. I will come back to the Deputy with some of the other issues.
I have a few points in relation to what the Minister said. I acknowledge the large amount in the budget and that the training allowance will be increased, which we called for. I also acknowledge that many civilian staff have been hired but the Department previously stated that, for every one civilian staff member hired, one garda could be deployed back to front-line duties. That has not happened. I know there has been some movement in relation to immigration but there is much more that can be done and there are many more recommendations in the Commission for the Future of Policing in Ireland report.
Sinn Féin made a submission before the report was published which stated that, to the greatest extent possible, all duties which do not require a garda with full police training should be allocated to an appropriately trained civilian. That was reflected in the report, which contains a chapter on non-core duties. Some of the other things, apart from immigration, which were mentioned were security at courts, transporting remand prisoners, serving summonses, prosecutions, presenting in District Courts, attending minor road traffic accidents, attending the coroner's court and safeguarding examination papers. They are a lot of the changes that could get more gardaí back onto the streets and make people in communities feel safer.
While I have outlined the work that is under way in terms of immigration, courts security and serving summonses, as the Deputy mentioned, a high-level group considered the recommendations relating to prosecutions. A report has been submitted which will shortly be brought to Government. A group chaired by my Department, comprising the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána, has also agreed on reforms to courts security, including the transfer of jury-minding responsibilities to the Courts Service. The group has also begun consideration of the serving of summonses.
Regarding the recommendation on prison escorts, the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 made provisions for remote hearings and the use of electronic means during criminal proceedings. Following this, the use of video link for court appearances by persons in prison increased significantly, with court appearances carried out via video link since early 2021, totalling in excess of 5,000 appearances, which obviously resulted in substantially fewer Garda resources being used for prisoner escorts. The Act also removed the requirement for Garda members to transport prisoners to another prison for the execution of a committal warrant in certain circumstances and, again, that has reduced the need for prison escorts.
Finally, regarding the coroner's court, my Department will engage in a wider consultation piece on coronial reform. That will start later this month and will form part of the overall reform piece.
The report, which is five years old, was quite unequivocal and stated the absolute priority should be that front-line district police should have the resources to perform their core community safety duties. That was a constant theme in the report. The urgency of the situation has not been addressed. I acknowledge what the Minister has said, but when will the court presenting changes be implemented? Will there be extra staff in State solicitors' offices to perform these duties? When will gardaí be taken from juries?
There are a lot of other ongoing duties currently undertaken by gardaí, and it is fair to say that reforms have been very slow since the report was published five years ago. This is all the more urgent given the crisis of morale in An Garda Síochána. The sense of job satisfaction has plummeted. Gardaí feel very stretched. Anything that can be done to implement the reforms that are gathering dust and get more police back on the street needs to be done urgently at this stage.
I reassure the Deputy that there is an absolute commitment to bring about these changes. There are a number of different strands to the process. In terms of the changes to immigration, we have a pathway that is being worked on to expand on the changes seen in Dublin Airport which have been very successful.
A body of work is being done on prosecutions, which the Deputy mentioned. I intend to bring the report of the group and proposed next steps to Government. A high-level group is examining the role of An Garda Síochána in prosecutions, as the Deputy said, something that was recommended in the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.
The 2020 Act has already allowed us to see changes in the number of gardaí required for various prison transfers. On top of that, a body of work has been done between An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service to identify where, on any given day, there might be 20 members of the force acting as security rather than dealing with cases before the courts. Freeing those numbers would be very positive and allow for a much greater Garda presence on the ground. Various strands of work are all coming to a point where we will start to see greater progress and can start to implement these changes. As always, it has taken a bit longer than we would like. Covid has interrupted a lot of work that has been done, but there is an impetus here and this is a priority for me.