I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 to make specific provision for minimum sentences for certain assault offences; and to provide for related matters.
I am delighted to table the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill 2023 on behalf of Aontú. This Bill is designed to protect Garda members and fire service, emergency service and healthcare workers in the line of duty.
This Aontú Bill provides for a minimum custodial sentence for someone who physically assaults a garda, a healthcare worker, or an emergency service worker while in the line of duty.
In an answer to a parliamentary question Aontú posed in recent weeks, we found out that 2,411 gardaí were assaulted while on active duty in the last ten years. More than 200 gardaí every year are being assaulted while they are going about their business to ensure they protect citizens in this country. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that is an enormously high figure. What it means is that gardaí and their families are terrified they will have a significant or serious assault meted out to them while they are working. The Government must take steps to protect gardaí while they are serving our community.
In the last few weeks, and the Taoiseach will have seen it, it has been incredible that gardaí have had their hands bitten, their cars rammed, and indeed they have been beaten up by thugs on the streets who seem to act with impunity in relation to the physical damage they are doing to gardaí. One of the key elements of this is that the Government has hung the gardaí out to dry in recent years. Figures I looked at from 2016 showed that Ireland had one of the lowest numbers of police per capita in the whole of the European Union. Indeed it was 40 police officers per 100,000 less than the European average, which is extremely low. This leaves gardaí fiercely vulnerable. The latest figures I have seen show that there has hardly been a change in the number of gardaí per capita since 2016. We must remember 2016 was a low point because it was at the end of many years of Templemore being closed and many years of harsh austerity being meted out and yet here we are today in 2023, after having a surplus of €5 billion last year, in a situation where we still have one of the lowest number of police in the whole of the European Union. We see that not only are gardaí being assaulted in high numbers but an awful lot of gardaí are not resigning from the force.
Another parliamentary question I submitted found out that two gardaí resign from the force every single week. Hundreds of gardaí are retiring from the force. At the same time, we ask the Government to invest in making sure we recruit more gardaí. It is incredible and the Taoiseach must have been astounded by this. Some 150 gardaí in total were recruited in 2022 which is one of the lowest figures since Templemore reopened. This is a figure that should be recruited on a monthly basis but it was the annual total for recruitment. The figures are only going one way in relation to this.
One of the problems is that the Department of Justice and the Ministers who have led the Department have been really focused on Bills that are all about the culture wars and are not about the bread and butter stuff of which people living in communities, be they rural or urban, are really frightened in terms of the dangers of being assaulted, being robbed, etc. The Department and the Government need to start focusing on these issues again because they are real issues. There is hardly a town in the country that does not have a problem with drugs being sold in its main square. There are serious difficulties getting the gardaí out onto the beat on the streets because of the lack of numbers we currently have. There are crises in the Garda at the moment and one crisis is that gardaí are being left incredibly vulnerable to assault and to attack. Our Bill very simply states that if a person assaults a garda physically, there will be a minimum custodial sentence for the person who carried it out. It also seeks to cover workers who work in the fire brigade, ambulance personnel, and health service workers. Front-line staff in the Ireland East Hospital Group reported 3,500 assaults while working in hospitals in a seven-year period. The Taoiseach has worked in hospitals and knows these people should be protected while they are protecting the lives of other people. I urge the Government to get behind this Bill and to make sure it passes all Stages as soon as possible.
