asked the Minister for Justice his views on whether it would be desirable both in the interest of effecting economies and making greater use of Garda manpower to privatise photography, fingerprinting and other Garda activities; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Technical Services.
6.
It is the considered view of the Garda authorities that privatisation of technical support services for the Garda Síochána, such as fingerprinting or photography, would not be in the best interests of the force for reasons, among others, of security and confidentiality. The Garda authorities also consider that in the case of most of the technical services required by the force, experience in police work and procedure is necessary.
A measure of privatisation exists in the repair and maintenance of the vehicles in the Garda fleet. The use of commercial garages for this work has been extended in the past 18 months or so and the question of further extending this arrangement is being kept under review.
I will use the Minister's word and ask him if he thinks it would be appropriate for civilians rather than gardaí to carry out this work? I refer to civilians working within the Garda authorities.
Civilianisation or privatisation?
We will, of course, be looking at the question of civilians working in these areas but that will only arise where it is possible to employ them. However, the Garda advise me that it is their considered view that in certain areas civilians would not be welcome for the reasons I gave in reply to the question. This would apply to the Technical Bureau, photography, fingerprinting and ballistics where it is essential for staff, as well as having specialist knowledge, to have knowledge of ordinary police work and procedures. The work of the photographic section includes mounting surveillance operations of subversives and criminals which sometimes involves work for protracted periods at nights and weekends. The members involved have to give evidence in court in regard to murder, kidnapping and other serious cases. The same argument applies to fingerprinting and ballistics. With regard to the depot garage and workshops, as I said during the past 18 months there has been a great move to employ outside agencies to do this sort of work. The radio section is serviced by radio technicians specially recruited as members of the force for this type of work, for very good reasons. With regard to the towing away of illegally parked vehicles, I understand this may well be privatised and if it releases gardaí for other work perhaps we will see where we are going there.
Would the Minister add to his brief the following consideration — while I sympathise with him in general on the idea of civilianisation — that in the event that Deputy McDowell's suggestion were adopted the State quite easily might not save any money because it would have to pay these civilian experts in finger printing and photography for their court attendance and hanging around for hours or days on end waiting for their evidence to be called? It is questionable whether any economy could be achieved through this route.
In reply to Deputy Kelly, you might not have these services when you wanted them. They might not be available for some reason or other. That is another factor.
You would have to be careful about this because of the possibility of strike action and placing of pickets.
That is what I mean.
There are troubles enough with that at the moment.
As long as people like Deputy Taylor do not try to stir it up I will be able to manage.