Ahern's special powers act never used after 8 months, Rabbitte tells Dail
Issued : Tuesday 2 February, 2010
Speech by Pat Rabbitte TD
Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources
In his Amendment to the Fine Gael Motion the Minister for Justice draws attention to what he calls the “extensive legislation” introduced by government to target the crime bosses and he refers in particular to the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009. This was the piece of legislation introduced last June by the Minister with great fanfare designed to bring the crime bosses before the Special Criminal Court. The media were briefed to the effect that an estimated 300 crime bosses would be arraigned before the Court as quickly as the President signed the Bill. The media bought the story and relatives of tragic victims of violence were rolled out to praise the Minister’s initiative. Eight months later not a single criminal of any standing has been tried under the new Act.
The worsening crime situation will not be addressed by legislative stunts designed to show that the Government is doing something. What we need now is not more law but the effective enforcement of the existing law. The vicious crime spiral poses an enormous challenge to the Garda Síochána a force comprising many thousands of dedicated Gardaí and led by a Commissioner whose reputation has earned widespread respect.
However, in this regard the Report of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate exposing serious deficiencies in the way the Garda are organised, deployed and resourced is a cause for acute concern. Essentially the force is in some areas according to the inspectorate organisationally dysfunctional. After more than five years of supposed reforms in the Garda Síochána, this Report profoundly challenges the conventional wisdom that significant progress is being made. No matter how diplomatic the language and irrespective of the verbal felicities that accompanied publication of the Report – the findings and recommendations will horrify the average citizen because they lay bare the outmoded, out-of-date practices that are the norm in the force. Of course, the Garda Representative organisations for different reasons corroborate these findings.
I heard a spokesman for AGSI last week say that most Garda Stations in 2010 don’t have e-mail. Some Gardaí, he said, use their own laptops. The civilianisation programme designed to free up Gardaí for front-line policing has never happened although civilians have been recruited but not to displace existing gardaí. The rostering system pays little regard to peak policing requirements. The use of Gardaí on duties to do with immigration, waiting times in Court and static protection duties distract Gardaí from core police duties.
Many of the recommendations are deeply disturbing in terms of the reality that they reveal, for example,
(a) Recommendation 17 - The Inspectorate recommends that, as a first step in the development of a national computer-aided dispatch system, the Garda Síochána replace the current outdated system in the Dublin Metropolitan Region immediately.
(b) Recommendation 19 - The Inspectorate recommends that the Garda Síochána devise and publish a policy on telecommunications contacts with members of the public.
(c) Recommendation 21 – The Inspectorate recommends that the Government have regard to the potential to achieve economies and efficiencies through co-location and integration of the control room systems of the Garda Síochána and other emergency services.
(d) Recommendation 14 – The Inspectorate recommends that the Garda Commissioner immediately establish a National Resource Deployment team to develop a resource allocation plan for the Garda Síochána. Ideally, the team should include sworn personnel, a civilian analyst and a professional project manager experienced in the development of strategic resource allocation in a police environment.
Altogether there are 27 recommendations at least 20 of which provoke a real anxiety about the day-to-day management and functioning of the force. For example, why did the Inspectorate consider it necessary to spell out Recommendation 11 viz:
The Inspectorate recommends that the Garda Síochána adopt a graduated response to calls for assistance. The Garda Síochána should adopt the widely accepted practice among police services in other jurisdictions of locating a helpdesk in control rooms to enable the needs of some callers to be met over the phone without dispatch of a patrol car.
Surely this is no more than a commonsense practical measure that should be in operation in every control room? Why is it necessary for the Inspectorate to recommend that:
Recommendation 18 – The Inspectorate recommends that, pending control room rationalisation (see recommendations 20 and 21), the Garda Síochana make a computerised record of the particulars of every “999” call received at the twenty-two divisional control rooms outside the DMR, including the time of the call, dispatch time, arrival time at scene and the call clearance time.
I understand that some useful reforms were on the table before the breakdown of talks with the trade unions before Christmas. The Report of the Garda Inspectorate would suggest that more Gardaí is the lazy solution; smarter policing and better deployment or men (and women) and resources are what are needed.
