I want to thank Deputies on all sides of the House for the tributes they have paid to the Garda Síochána force as a whole. This tribute is due in our circumstances to our Garda force. The very fact that from every side of this House we have this unanimity of view about the integrity of our Garda force, the way the Garda behave themselves towards all citizens and keep the scales of justice evenly balanced between man and man, is significant. It is certainly the answer to those who would try to denigrate our force and try to present a picture of our force which we all know is untrue. Whatever about your generosity, Sir, to some of the Deputies who spoke, I want to keep strictly within the terms of Standing Order No. 126 and to confine my remarks to the matters contained in this Supplementary Estimate.
The main matter to be dealt with here is the provision implementing the recommendation of the Conroy Commission. Although I have already done this privately, I think I should publicly pay a tribute to Judge Conroy and the members of this commission for the excellent and meticulous job they did. First, I think I should place on record —I am sure this is accepted by the House; it is certainly accepted by the force and everybody outside—that this was a completely independent commission, completely independent of the Government and completely independent of my Department. It was deliberately so constructed when it was set up. There had been for many long years demands by the Representative Body of the Garda and the Garda force as a whole for some form of commission to inquire into their circumstances. This commission under Judge Conroy got the rather unenviable and difficult task of making an examination in depth of every aspect of the garda's life and duty, every aspect of his work. This was the first examination in depth of the Garda Síochána which was attempted since its foundation.
The commission's report is a very comprehensive document, as Deputies who have read it are aware. The original ran to about 250 pages with about 1,300 paragraphs dealing with every aspect of the garda's life and work from his training to the day he retires. The end result here today is the recommendation which is being implemented by the House in this Supplementary Estimate: that the young garda, the rookie as he is called, now earns during training £15 7s 6d. He completes the initial training after approximately five months and he goes up to £17 10s 6d. Then he goes ahead by nine yearly increments until he reaches his maximum of £25 7s 3d, which is now the basic weekly rate, in addition to which a further increment of £1 a week is paid after 15 years service. The sergeant starts at £27 10s 0d and by three increments reaches a maximum of £29 16s. 6d. Those were recommendations of the Conroy Commission, with corresponding increases for the other ranks.
I want to turn for a moment to some criticism which was implied by Deputy Pattison concerning the way this commission's report was dealt with. It would be wise to remind the House of the facts in this connection. I have referred to the size of this report. I got it on approximately 20th January and it was just a typed copy. We had to try to reproduce as quickly as possible about 600 stencilled copies of this report, first for the Garda themselves and then for the Government to look at it. Copies were distributed to all concerned within five days. This report must have created a record, so far as the implementation of parts of it is concerned, in the whole history of commissions or reports since the foundation of the State.
Again, I should like to point out that immediately that report was stencilled, so that the Government and those concerned could study it, a statement was issued on the 27th January—within a week of this report being presented—which said:
The Government wish to emphasise that their objective in setting up the Commission was to effect a fundamental review of the pay and conditions of the Garda Síochána by reference to modern conditions and circumstances. The report is the first independent, comprehensive review of the Force's conditions since it was founded. It has major financial and other implications and it would be unrealistic to expect immediate decisions on the very many matters covered. The Government are giving urgent and sympathetic consideration to the recommendations with a view to the early implementation of those which they find acceptable and feasible.
That was on the 27th January. On the 3rd February, within another few days of this statement, a statement was issued by me which said:
The Government have today decided to implement the recommendations of the Commission in relation to the basic pay of all ranks of the Force with effect from the 1st June, 1969.
It then went on to say:
The Government, at the request of the Garda Síochána Joint Representative Body, have also decided to set up the Consultative Council recommended by the Commission.
Surely this implementation, almost as quickly as they could be looked at, of two of the major recommendations in the report is a record? I think Deputy Pattison was quoting somebody who said communications in connection with this report were badly handled.
The scribe who wrote that the Government should have set out, side by side with all these hundreds of recommendations of this report, Government decisions on them should be in Grangegorman. It was the most irresponsible comment I have ever heard or read about any report issued by anybody. I am asking the House for over £1 million. I do not know how anyone who has gone to the trouble of reading all the different recommendations in this report could suggest that within 14 days one could have a Government decision side by side each of the recommendations. I do not know where these fellows come from, how they think, or whether they have heads on them for the sole purpose of keeping their lugs apart. It was an utterly irresponsible comment.
I may also mention that on the 10th February I set up the Garda Síochána Consultative Council in accordance with the recommendations of the commission. It is part of the job of this council to discuss together aspects of the report for the purpose of the speedy examination of certain matters referred to in it. The Consultative Council is chaired by the Assistant Commissioner James McDonagh and the other members are Garda John Marrinan, Sergeant Thomas O'Reilly, Chief Superintendent Patrick McLoughlin and two civil servants, John Griffin and P. Mac Guill. The force and those who run it are in the majority on this Consultative Council. The commission think by having this council communications will be vastly improved and misunderstandings will be avoided as between the force and those whose duty it is to look after them.
There are other aspects of this report which are urgent. The question of overtime is under examination and will be dealt with as quickly as possible. There are a vast number of recommendations here. Some of them are very far-reaching. They need very considerable examination and certainly their implementation will cost considerable amounts of money. From time to time I will be coming before the House—and particularly with my next Estimate—dealing with some of these matters when they are fully examined. The commission has recommended the setting up of a planning and research unit which will have the function of examining different practices in the force. We have examined major recommendations in so far as pay and other matters in this Estimate are concerned. I assume by the end of the month the Garda will have got this money, which is retrospective to June last, just as is the other increase which they got. This must be a record in so far as the recommendation has been accepted and also a record in the time in which it is being implemented.
Any misunderstanding there was about the Conroy Commission Report in the first few days was due in the main to people with rumours. The report was not actually available in sufficient quantity because it was not printed. People, including some young gardaí, were told different stories. Rumours, as the Deputies know, are very dangerous and some people did not know accurately what was in the report at all. They were taking different versions which were being conveyed to them. I am glad to say that, so far as I can ascertain, the Representative Body of the Garda have accepted this report. They accept that it is being implemented as far as we can examine it. Every aspect of this report, immediately the necessary examinations are made by the Government, will be dealt with as quickly as we can possibly get round to it. There is much spadework to be done.
I want to endorse everything that Deputy Cosgrave has said about the unauthorised usurpation of people's rights. I appreciate the apprehension that is being caused in the mind of the public about the recent bank raids. Some of these very serious crimes against property are carried out by organised criminals. It is very necessary that public opinion should be firmly behind the law enforcement authorities in dealing with miscreants. In so far as public opinion has been moulded by expressions of view in this House, I am grateful to all the Deputies who have spoken. I am grateful for the solidarity with which they have expressed their views on this particular issue. The fact of the matter is that people representing nobody and afraid to come out and ask for public suffrage are prepared to come out in the dead of the night and terrorise their neighbours at the point of a gun. Such people are prepared to throw petrol bombs at public property and let the public pay for the damage.
I referred to how Garda time is being wasted by many of these irresponsible people. The best protection we can have against that is informed public opinion. The more our people realise the utter irresponsibility displayed by some of these criminal elements—and that is the only way to describe them— the sooner our people realise the price the taxpayer is paying to try to control these people, who are comparatively very small in numbers but who are a very expensive item on our national bill, the better for the peace of our community. As has been said by some Deputies here, the co-operation of our people to put these people behind bars is what is urgently required at this time in our country. If the Garda get the full co-operation of our people, which they should get because they are public servants, the sooner these miscreants will be behind bars and the sooner the terror of some people living in isolated areas will be ended.
So far as the other aspect of this Supplementary Estimate is concerned, that is, the portion of it dealing with transport, I am very glad to say that Garda communications have been vastly improved and at this time are being vastly improved. Some of the most modern equipment has been acquired for them or is, at this time, being acquired for them. It is my hope that before very long, with radio communications and the modernisation of the communications generally throughout the force, this will give the Garda force teeth they did not have up to this time. To deal with the widespread hit and run type of organised crime we now have, this is essential. Some of these criminals are equipped with and have experience of the use of walkie-talkie equipment. They have very modern equipment, too.
In these circumstances it is now vital that our force should be fully equipped with the most modern equipment available. I am glad to tell the House that that is being done. When the present reorganisation of the force has been completed, with radio equipment, with cars, with fully equipped motor cycles, I believe we will have a force with teeth that will make impossible some of these rather frightening organised crimes that are going on at present.
I do not think there is any other matter that arises under this Supplementary Estimate to which I need to refer. It is quite clear that Deputies on all sides of the House are prepared to advise the public to co-operate with the Garda to the fullest possible extent in putting down the latest organised crime wave. I believe that being the situation inside here, in a short time it will be generally accepted by the public outside too. The public are becoming more and more educated about some of the thugs and layabouts who are wasting the time of the Garda and costing the taxpayers a lot of money. The public are getting wise to the carry-on we have had here. As some Deputies have said, the best way to kill this is by the weight of public opinion. The way this Estimate has been received by the House is an indication that the House is playing its own part in moulding public opinion.
I know I am speaking for all sides of the House when I say that it has been a pleasure for Members of the House and for me as Minister for Justice to implement this vital part of the Conroy Committee recommendation and that it is the wish of the House that in so far as our national resources can afford it we will ensure that our Garda force are reasonably remunerated for the job that is certainly being very well done. They will continue to command the respect of this House and indeed of the public at large for their integrity and their impartiality in respect of which tributes have been paid by all Deputies who have spoken tonight on this Supplementary Estimate.