The Minister for Justice has made a determined effort to silence his critics in his announcement of plans to recruit an additional 2,000 gardaí over the next three years.
The initiative includes moving in-service training out of the Garda College in Templemore, extending educational facilities there and taking in around 274 new recruits every quarter, an average of 100 more than usual. By 2007, the total additional intake is expected to outnumber those likely to retire by close to 2,000.
The measures will be welcomed by those who have been demanding more gardaí on the beat, fighting drug crime and enforcing the traffic laws but the problems in our police force are not primarily about numbers. The Garda Síochána has been held in respect and affection by most Irish people since the foundation of the State. But its high standing has been undermined to a degree by a series of scandals which have exposed a lack of accountability and an apparent sense of impunity among certain members of the force. The Minister has promised measures to address the issue of accountability and these are awaited.
In charting its future, it is imperative that the Garda should address the alienation experienced by certain communities, fed by examples of the kind of insensitive policing detailed last year by the National Crime Council. The proposals to examine recruitment procedures to ensure that they do not discriminate against members of ethnic minorities are welcome but they should be matched by measures to attract recruits from marginalised communities and groups.
There must be a much broader discussion also of what society wants from its police and what changes may be required in work practices in order to get it. People want more gardaí on the beat, more involved in enforcing the traffic laws and more involved in tackling serious crime. We need to know whether we are getting the optimum return on existing resources. There is no general understanding, for instance, of what gardaí manning stations actually do while they are there. Yet this function demands enormous resources. And - as disclosed by The Irish Times this week - the whole area of youth justice is now under examination in the Department of Justice. This, too, will have implications for the work of the force.
The Garda Síochána is an integral part of our criminal justice system. As such it must have public confidence and - in the light of recent events - needs to work hard to restore it. The new recruitment regime offers the force an opportunity to engage in open-minded discussion on how it can best serve society in the 21st century.