Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
51. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Justice to provide a comparison in community gardaí numbers in the Dublin area between pre-pandemic and those available currently; and to address concerns over designated community gardaí being assigned to other duties. [55128/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI ask the Minister for Justice to provide a comparison in community gardaí numbers in the Dublin area prior to the pandemic and those available currently, and to address concerns over designated community gardaí being designated to other duties.
On the overall figures, I have a breakdown for community gardaí in the DMR region 2019 in comparison to 2023. This includes DMR east, DMR north, DMR central, DMR north central, DMR south, DMR south central and DMR west. The figures were 301 in 2019. They are 276 in 2023. While that is a decrease of 25, there has also been a decrease in our overall garda numbers since the pandemic due to the closure of the college to new recruits. We have seen a decrease but I am positive we are now in a situation where our garda numbers will start to increase.
Obviously, that will impact on all the various teams, including community teams. The figure of 276 is out of an overall figure of 3,719 Garda members.
Community policing is at the heart of An Garda Síochána and all gardaí have a role to play in it in the course of their duties. Community policing is fundamental to the new operating model that is currently being rolled across the country and has been fully commenced in ten Garda divisions. The new model will provide more front-line gardaí, increased Garda visibility and a wider range of policing services for people in their local area. It will divide service delivery within divisions into four functional areas, one of the most important being community engagement. This will allow for a greater and more consistent focus on community policing in all divisions. The Garda authorities have advised that a member of An Garda Síochána may be deemed to be a community garda where that person is allocated to a community policing team, CPT, and is responsible and accountable for applying a problem-solving approach to appropriate crime and policing quality-of-life issues in a specified geographic area through partnership and engagement.
I very much welcome the interactive map launched recently on the Garda website, which allows people to identify where the local community policing team is in their area. That system will continue to be developed in line with the continued roll-out of the new Garda operating model. The more Garda members we have, the more populated those areas will be. It is a really important element of the new operating model that people will be able to click in and see who is the dedicated policing community member in their area. More broadly, all Garda members perform community policing duties every day within their normal policing structures. The figures I have given are the ones we have to date.
The numbers are down by 25. I appreciate that, as the Minister said, there was a period in which gardaí were not being trained in Templemore because of the pandemic. I accept that but, still, we are not where we were. I believe, as I hope the Minister does, that there is no more important garda than a community garda. Most young people will get to know the local community garda and will look beyond the uniform. This is particularly important in communities that have an intergenerational issue with An Garda Síochána. We can pretend that issue is not there but it is there and it has been there for 100 years, with people not liking or trusting the force and having a fractious relationship with it. Sometimes, for the first time in people's family history, they may be able to look beyond the uniform. When that person is not available to them, because he or she is assigned to another duty or is stretched, it breaks down the ability of a school, for example, to interact with the council, youth services or other agencies. I really want to impress on the Minister the importance of community gardaí. Communities in Dublin are saying they are just not as available as they were and there is no feeling that their numbers will be enhanced in the future.
I fully agree with the Deputy that gardaí, and community gardaí in particular, are an integral part of the community, whether in a rural or urban setting. People feel safe and secure when they know they can pick up the telephone and contact a community garda. Engagement can take place at public meetings or by directly engaging with the garda on issues arising in the community. I recently attended the retirement function of a local Garda member who did exactly that type of work and was very well respected, known and loved within the community for that engagement over many years. People want that type of engagement. It is a key part of the new operating model and making sure everybody has access to the community member and local team.
There has been a roll-out of community policing teams across the country. While they are not as well populated as we would like at this time, they are being rolled out throughout the State. I can only point to my constituency, where a new community policing team has been put in place to cover a number of different towns in the south of the county. It has already made a major difference in people being able to pick up the telephone and communicate. The team members also support other Garda members in responding to their core duties. They have a dual function and role. As well as dealing directly with the community, they respond to crime and threats as they arise and support other gardaí in their roles, in the same way that other gardaí take on community policing roles as well as the dedicated duties to which they are assigned.
The pandemic period was profoundly damaging to young people. They lost their ability to socialise for the guts of two years and they spent a prolonged period online, where many were attracted to bad actors. Social cohesion has been put under massive strain during and since the pandemic. Schoolteachers, principals and community leaders are all saying that. It is much more difficult now to engage with young people and for them to trust the State because there are so many bad actors, as I call them, online, who are telling them not to trust authority, that is, the State, politicians or any agencies, and certainly not the Garda. The human face of An Garda Síochána is more important than it ever has been. I accept there was a difficulty in training gardaí in Templemore during the pandemic. I impress on the Minister again that there is no more important role than that of community gardaí. Individual community gardaí will stop more crime and solve more problems at the community level than any other section of Garda Síochána. I know the Minister appreciates that.
For the most part, for the community gardaí I have met in the various Dublin stations in recent weeks and months, much of their work was and still is going into schools and engaging with younger people where they can. They are getting back into that now after the Covid period, where it was not happening in the same way. That had a detrimental impact and will continue to have a detrimental impact in the years to come. Community gardaí are back in the schools working with younger people and engaging with the youth justice programmes. The Minister of State, Deputy Browne, has done a huge amount of work in investing in the youth justice programmes and making sure they are rolled out right across the country. Community gardaí engage as well with the various organisations that deal directly with young people. Certainly, the gardaí with whom I have engaged see that as an integral part of their work. It is really important to speak to young people at a young age. However, we have seen in recent weeks a complete lack of respect for An Garda Síochána on the part of some young people. Where that develops at an earlier stage, it is much harder to combat. Face-to-face interaction is absolutely vital in combatting it.
