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- Ms Elaine Byrne will take over as Chair of the Policing Authority in January 2024.
- Policing Authority will continue important oversight of An Garda Síochána until the establishment of the Policing and Community Safety Authority.
The Government has agreed to reappoint Ms Elaine Byrne, Mr Donal de Buitleir, Mr Anthony Harbinson, Dr Jane Mulcahy, Mr Paul Mageean and Dr Deborah Donnelly, as members of the Policing Authority.
Ms Elaine Byrne has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the Policing Authority, taking effect from January 1st 2024.
Dr Byrne has served as a member of the Authority since March 2021. She is a practising barrister with a specialisation in Regulatory Law and Employment Law. She has acted as a consultant on governance matters for the European Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank. She has served as a member of the Hamilton Review Group on Economic Crime and Corruption, and the Seanad Working Group on Reform.
The new Policing Security and Community Safety Bill will complete its journey through the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible and it will provide for a new governance and oversight framework for policing and provide for the establishment of a new independent oversight body replacing the Policing Authority and the Garda Síochána Inspectorate. This body will be known as the Policing and Community Safety Authority.
In the meantime, there remains a need for the Policing Authority to remain fully functional and therefore it is necessary to reappoint members of the Policing Authority to ensure continuity of its functions until the new Policing and Community Safety Authority is established.
As such, Mr Paul Mageean and Dr Deborah Donnelly are reappointed as members of the Policing Authority with effect from January 1st 2024 until December 31st 2024 or until the dissolution of the Policing Authority, whichever takes place first.
Similarly, Ms Elaine Byrne, Mr Donal de Buitleir, Mr Anthony Harbinson and Dr Jane Mulcahy are reappointed as members of the Policing Authority with effect from March 9th 2024 until December 31st 2024 or until the dissolution of the Policing Authority, again whichever is the sooner.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee said: “I welcome the reappointments announced today and I want to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Policing Authority for their commitment up until now and for continuing the important work of the Authority.
The introduction of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill has been a priority for me and it will see the introduction of the new Policing and Community Safety Authority. I’m happy to say the Bill is progressing very well and we hope to see it completed very soon indeed.
I wish the esteemed members of the Policing Authority continued success in their respective roles and I want to thank Elaine Byrne for taking over as Chair of the Authority. I also want to sincerely commend Bob Collins, whose term as Chair of the Authority will end at the end of December, for his dedication to the role, and to thank Dr Moling Ryan and Valerie Judge for their work as members of the Authority for the past eight years.”
The new Authority will combine the broad-ranging oversight function of the Policing Authority and the complementary inspection function of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate. It will be exclusively focused on providing robust independent oversight of the performance of An Garda Síochána in relation to policing services.
Meanwhile, separately the Government has won a Dáil confidence vote, tonight, in the Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee, by a clear majority of 83 votes to 63.
Tipperary Roads Policing Unit, in carrying out patrols in the Thurles district yesterday, Monday 4th December, intercepted and seized 4 vehicles.
One of the vehicles intercepted, found the driver identified as being disqualified from driving and the subject was subsequently arrested and has now been charged to appear in the district court.
The remaining other three vehicles were identified as being uninsured following alerts, identified through the new Garda Mobility Application (APP), latter which provides up-to-date real time information, thus enabling Gardaí to assist in identifying a number of motoring offences.
All vehicles, as already stated were seized, with a court appearance by their drivers to follow.
Within the past 36 hours, Tipperary Roads Policing Unit, who were patrolling the town of Thurles, intercepted two vehicles within a short period of each other, following the use of their new “Integrated Traffic App” alert system.
Both vehicles were found and confirmed as having no insurance.
The New Integrated Traffic App give Gardaí more real-time data, thus allowing them to detect road users without Insurance and other offences.
In both of the above cases/traffic offences, vehicles were seized, with a court appearance to follow.
In another case within the past 12 hours, Tipperary Roads Policing Unit, again patrolling within the Thurles town area, intercepted a car after it drew their attention.
Following their interception, the driver was arrested on suspicion of Drug Driving, after a Drug Wipe test for Cocaine and Cannabis proved positive.
- Bodycams on Gardaí in Dublin from next spring ahead of national rollout.
- Minister welcomes early attestation of latest Garda class before Christmas.
- Garda management outline range of new public order measures.
- Between 700 and 800 new recruits into Garda college this year.
Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee TD has this evening welcomed the passage of key legislation to provide An Garda Síochána with bodyworn cameras to give our Gardaí greater access to CCTV and to provide for community CCTV.
Minister McEntee said this puts An Garda Síochána on a clear path to begin rolling out bodycams on frontline Gardaí from next year, with Gardaí in Dublin City Centre having access to bodycams from next spring.
The Minister also welcomed the series of announcements from Commissioner Harris and the senior leadership team of An Garda Síochána today, including the accelerated expansion of the Garda Dog Unit – as provided for by Minister McEntee in Budget 2024.
Other measures include the provision of stronger incapacitating spray for all Gardaí; the provision of tasers to public order units, subject to training; more public order training for Gardaí; more and improved public order equipment and vehicles; more Garda data scientists to support the analysis of evidential material; the purchase of hand held video cameras for public order units; and the further expansion of public order tactics.
The Minister also said she looks forward to attending the early attestation of 151 new Gardaí on December 15, with a substantial cohort being deployed in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, from December 16.
This will be the latest class to graduate from Templemore as Garda recruitment gains momentum and helps us build stronger, safer communities.
Numbers in Templemore continue to increase, with between 700 and 800 new recruits entering the college this year.
135 trainees entered the training college in February, 154 entered in May, 174 entered in July, and another 177 entered the college last month, the largest intake since Covid.
One more class is due into Templemore on December 27, putting us on course to have between 700 and 800 into the college this year.
Budget 2024 provides for the recruitment of between 800 and 1,000 recruits next year.
Equipping Gardaí with bodycams is a major element of Minister McEntee’s drive to equip Gardaí with state of the art modern equipment and she welcomed the passage of the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022 through the Oireachtas this evening.
It will provide a robust and modern statutory framework for the use by An Garda Síochána of recording devices to support their functions in investigating, detecting, preventing and prosecuting criminal offences, safeguarding against and preventing threats to public safety and public order, and in matters relating to the security of the State.
It will be accompanied by strong legislation to provide An Garda Síochána with Facial Recognition Technology.
The Bill will now be referred to the President to be signed into law.
Minister McEntee said: “The Government is committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána have the resources, the equipment and the technology necessary to build stronger, safer communities.
This includes ensuring that Gardaí have body worn cameras, which has been a priority of mind for some time.
The shocking scenes we witnessed last Thursday night show how crucial bodycams, as well as tools such as Facial Recognition Technology, are to protecting Gardaí and help bring criminals to justice.
These tough new laws will help An Garda Síochána identify perpetrators and gather evidence directly. It will help them deal with public order and with tackling incitement by the far right.
But there will also be other benefits this Bill – greater access to Automatic Number Plate Recognition will help with longer term investigations, and reduce the time it takes to collate evidence and track suspects.”
Policing services across the world have gained significant benefits from the introduction of these technologies and I am confident that they will play an important role in improving Garda front-line capabilities and in ensuring the accurate recording of incidents.
Minister McEntee added: “Particularly in light of the shocking scenes we all witnessed last Thursday night, this Bill and the changes it will make are more important than ever.
Now that the Bill has successfully completed its final stage, I hope to see it enacted, commenced, and for body-worn cameras to be rolled out as soon as possible.
I also welcome the Garda Senior Leadership Teams decision on a range of measures to support Gardaí in policing serious public order incidents and conducting criminal investigations in order to keep people safe.
This includes running a separate proof of concept (POC) project involving the deployment of body-worn cameras in Dublin city centre. The cameras will be used in conjunction with a code of practice developed in line with the Digital Recording Bill.
This relatively quick technical solution will make Body Worn Cameras available to city centre Gardaí in a shorter timeframe to the main solution by next spring.“
The use of Facial Recognition Technology will be provided for separately in the new Garda Síochána (Digital Management and Facial Recognition Technology) Bill 2023.
Minister McEntee said: “I have instructed officials to include riot and violent disorder in the new facial recognition bill which will be ready to go to Government within weeks.
I have also informed the Cabinet that I have asked An Garda Síochána to consider how to fast track the purchase of Garda bodycams.”
The Department of Justice has engaged extensively with An Garda Síochána, Garda oversight bodies and strategic partners during the preparation of this Bill, as well as the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
The legislation is an overt policing Bill, dealing primarily with recording in public places, and is fully compliant with the GDPR and the accompanying law enforcement directive. Codes of practice will be developed for the use of the various technologies provided for in the Bill and will be included in a Statutory Instrument.
Tipperary Gardaí, through their Roads Policing Units, have intercepted two motor vehicles, after alerts for no insurance were detected.
The interceptions here in North Tipperary, were detected in the areas of Nenagh and Roscrea, using new Integrated Traffic Applications (App’s), which have more updated real-time data, and which can detect road users without Insurance and other offences.
The Integrated Traffic App device can scan a vehicles registration plate and automatically returns relevant data. The device can also scan a driving licence and automatically return real time information, immediately, on the roadside to the investigating Gardaí. This updated App has proved successful in identifying false or forged driving licences, uninsured and untaxed cars, stolen vehicles and disqualified drivers. This Offences App also provides offence details including penalty points and fines.
In the case of the above stated uninsured offences, the vehicles were seized and drivers will be summoned to appear, in due course, in their local district Court.
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