Double drugs squad resources, says Sinn Féin

The Garda Special Branch should be disbanded while resources to the Garda Drugs Unit should be doubled, Sinn Féin has said as part of its submission to the Garda Policing Plan 2008.

The policing plan is being drawn up and will be published later this year.

Introducing its submission, the party's justice spokesman, Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the Garda had invited Sinn Féin to make a submission.

"We welcome the opportunity to participate in the development of the plan. Sinn Féin believes the policing plan must reflect the priorities of communities and it must commit the Gardaí to working with communities in real partnerships."

The party had earlier this year conducted surveys at 21 locations across Dublin to ascertain the concerns of communities.

These found that more than a third of respondents identified anti-social behaviour - such as people being drunk and rowdy, threatening or intimidating behaviour and drug dealing - as "serious problems in their area", says the submission.

"Discarded needles or syringes were identified as a serious problem by 17.4 per cent of respondents. . . with 53.5 per cent of respondents identifying drunk and rowdy behaviour as a serious problem in their area."

They found "an overwhelming 95.2 per cent of respondents would prefer full-time gardaí in their area to members of the Garda Reserve."

Under the heading "serious drug and gun crime", the submission says: "The Special Branch should be disbanded and its officers redeployed only following completion of intensive human rights upskilling".

It says this branch of the Garda "has violated civil rights and diverted much policing time and resources away from real service to the community. . .the resources freed up by this disbandment could be redeployed to properly target serious drug crime."

One of the party's Dublin city councillors, Louise Minihan, called for domestic and sexual violence to be named as priorities in the Policing plan for next year and she criticised the fact that neither are mentioned in the policing plan for this year.

"There must be greater investment in specialised training and on-going in-service training for gardaí given the distinct nature of domestic and sexual violence," she said.