Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Oct 2001

Vol. 543 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Garda Deployment.

Mr. Healy

I thank the Minister for coming into the House on this matter. I pay tribute to the Garda Síochána for its excellent work on our behalf, which it performs in difficult times and in circumstances where it is understaffed and lacks resources. I support the call by the Garda Representative Association for additional gardaí. There is a widespread public belief that the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has little or no appreciation of the level of vandalism and anti-social behaviour in our towns and housing estates. The Minister is aware of the serious difficulties on our streets at night, and particularly at weekends, after discos and at fast food outlets in almost all our towns and cities.

Housing estates have additional difficulties caused, fortunately, by a small number of individuals, which impinge greatly on the local community. There is verbal abuse, stone and egg throwing, graffiti and breaking of windows and abuse of substances. Recently, I saw cases where every window in a house was broken. There was retaliation recently when men wearing balaclavas broke into a house with sledge hammers and caused damage. Garda cars are stoned. I dealt with 12 cases of families driven from housing estates in my constituency. Such families are traumatised and then discriminated against because they are not allowed to apply for local authority housing for another 12 months. We do not need vigilantism and people taking the law into their own hands.

Additional gardaí, especially on the beat, and designated under community Garda schemes, are needed to deal with the problems that occur in housing estates. In Clonmel Corporation, we established a committee to liaise with local gardaí and members of the health board to deal with this. Unfortunately, we have been unable to meet local Garda representatives. Specially dedicated community gardaí should be based in local areas to liaise with communities, parents and youngsters. They should build up co-operation with and respect for the Garda among local communities. The Minister should urgently look at such schemes for south Tipperary, particularly in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Cashel and Fethard. I hope that the Minister will confirm that further Garda stations will not close.

Mr. O'Donoghue

I welcome this opportunity to deal with the points raised by the Deputy.

On the issue of Garda overall strength, as the Deputy will appreciate, as Minister, I am responsible for the overall provision of resources to the Garda Síochána while its authorities are responsible for the detailed allocation of personnel and resources to individual areas. When this Government took office it gave a simple commitment with regard to Garda strength. We said that we would increase the strength to 12,000 and delivered on that commitment. By the end of next year, the strength of the Garda Síochána will stand at 12,000, the highest ever in the history of the State. That will be an increase of 1,200 over the number of gardaí when I took up office as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I am proud that we have fulfilled this commitment and kept our promise to the people. I announced last week that 496 posts in the Garda Síochána are to be civilianised and this will free up an equivalent number of gardaí for operational duties. The overall effect is that not only do we now have more gardaí but a higher proportion of them will be assigned to operational duties.

As regards the deployment of those gardaí, I have been assured by the Garda authorities that the level of Garda manpower assigned to various areas, together with overall policing arrangements and operational strategy, are continually monitored and reviewed. Such monitoring ensures that optimum use is made of Garda resources, and the best possible Garda service is provided to the general public. As well as increasing the strength of the force, I also provided additional financial resources. The provision in the Garda Vote when I took office was £457 million while this year it is over £690 million, a significant increase by any standards.

The Deputy referred to the re-opening of small town, village and rural Garda stations. I question this implication most strongly because I have not closed stations and have no intention of doing so. Indeed, £15 million is being spent this year on upgrading Garda accommodation at various locations around the country. I repeat that there is no policy of closing stations nor do I have any intention of introducing such a policy. It can be safely stated that never in the history of the State have more resources been allocated to combating crime, purchasing modern technology and equipment for the Garda Síochána and ensuring that the number of Garda personnel is increased. Furthermore, never have we had such a major prison building programme to ensure that those convicted of crime serve their sentences.

Returning to the issue of Garda strength, the House will be aware that one of the Garda staff associations recently spoke about an optimum numbers survey. The possibility of such a survey was considered by the Garda SMI steering group in 1998 and was deferred due to reservations about its value. I understand the Garda SMI steering group will revert to the issue at a later date. The Garda establishment redistribution model has since been introduced to ensure the optimum match between available Garda resources and demands for Garda services.

We are increasing the strength of the Garda Síochána to 12,000. I stress that this is the highest number in the history of the State. We are spending more money than ever on resources for the gardaí, ensuring that all of the other necessary components in the criminal justice system – such as a modern and effective prisons system – are in place to complement the work of the gardaí and continuing to put in place the necessary legislative framework to support them in their day-to-day job of fighting crime and enforcing the law.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.10 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 6 November 2001.