Clare Daly
Ceist:
257. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if members of An Garda Síochána receive dedicated training in dealing with racist crimes and anti-racist culture; if so, the stage of their careers at which they receive this training; if refresher training is obligatory for members; and if so, the regularity with which it must be undertaken. [31185/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Clare Daly
Ceist:
260. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if An Garda Síochána has a written diversity, equality and hate crime policy; and if so, if he will furnish a copy of same. [31231/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Clare Daly
Ceist:
261. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if An Garda Síochána has a racist incident strategy in place; and if same has been made available to all stations. [31232/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra
I propose to take Questions Nos. 257, 260 and 261 together.
The Deputy will appreciate that it is the Garda Commissioner who is primarily responsible for managing and controlling generally the administration and business of An Garda Síochána including training.
Notwithstanding the information provided by Minister of State Stanton in response to your Question No. 256 of today's date, I have asked the Garda Commissioner for the specific information requested and when it is to hand I will inform the Deputy accordingly.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A
I refer to Parliamentary Question Nos. 257, 260 and 261 for answer on Wednesday 11 July 2018 .
At the time I responded that I would request the information sought by the Deputy from the Garda Commissioner and that I would write directly to her on receipt of same.
As outlined in the Policing Plan for 2019, work is well underway within An Garda Síochána in developing a revised Diversity and Integration Policing Strategy. The new policy is in line with international best practice, will include enhanced processes for the reporting, recording and investigation of hate and racist crime as well as victim engagement support. I am informed by the Commissioner that once the revised policy is approved by the Garda Executive it is planned to complete a nationwide campaign to encourage victims to come forward and report incidents of racist or hate crime to An Garda Síochána.
I am advised that improvements were made to the Garda PULSE system (PULSE release 6.8) in 2015 and, among the enhancements included in this release, was the introduction of a Victim Assessment Screen. This requires the mandatory recording of data relating to the apparent motive for a crime incident, such as whether it has been motivated by discrimination on specific grounds including age, disability, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
The Garda National Diversity and Integration Unit (GNDIU) has responsibility for coordinating, monitoring and advising on all aspects of policing Ireland's diverse communities including monitoring the reporting and recording of hate and racist crime on a continual basis. There are currently over 240 Garda Ethnic Liaison Officers (ELOs) appointed to work with minority communities at local level. These officers play a fundamental role in liaising with minority communities and work in partnership to encourage tolerance, respect and understanding within communities and to help prevent hate and racist crime.
As the Deputy will appreciate, it is the Garda Commissioner who is responsible for training of Garda members and staff and I, as Minister, have no direct role in the matter.
I am informed that Trainee Gardaí on Phase 1 of the BA Applied Policing study a ‘Policing with Communities’ Module. As part of this training students study, a unit on Diversity entitled “Open Minds”. Also during the training phase consultants engage with trainee Gardaí on the subject of diversity and elements of racism. All students while on Phase 1 will have access to An Garda Síochána’s information repository, the Garda Portal, where a number of booklets are available covering aspects of dealing with racist crimes and anti-racist culture.
Operational probationer Gardaí liaise with their local appointed ELOs in respect of Racial, Intercultural & Diversity matters. All ELOs are trained by the Racial, Intercultural & Diversity Office, Community Relations Section.
An Garda Síochána has a comprehensive education, training and information system for the continuous professional development of all members. This development programme incorporates the following human rights training:
- There is a two and a half day human rights and anti-racism module on the Sergeant and Inspector Development courses;
- A human rights module on the course for Senior Investigating Officers is provided by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. In addition there are inputs on human rights on the Superintendent and Chief Superintendent Development Courses.
In addition in May last year, eight Gardaí attended Hate Crime Instructor training for Law Enforcement provided by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and are part of a European network of police officers trained in responding to this type of crime.
I hope that this information is of assistance.
