Cormac O'Keeffe: Security issues trail progress on policing

Three key areas on policing, community safety, and security played out yesterday, with two showing progress, writes Security Correspondent Cormac O'Keeffe

At a launch in Drogheda on Monday, Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced the establishment of seven local community safety partnerships — in Kildare, Leitrim, Louth, South Dublin, Sligo, Tipperary, and Longford. File Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Monday was a busy day for the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, not that the long-defunct commission actively played a part in three events that played out yesterday.

Its landmark report — a blueprint for the overhaul of policing and security in Ireland — was published just over six years ago.

Two of the developments, while long-awaited, would be seen by most as very positive; the third less so.

The first was the formal launch of a pilot crisis intervention team bringing together, for the first time, both gardaí and health professionals to provide a better response to people in a mental health crisis.

The second was the establishment of seven local community and safety partnerships — new bodies including a wider range of State bodies, beyond just the gardaí, with a new statutory responsibility for “community safety”.

However, tagged on to these progressive developments was a laggard — highlighted on the back of a Sunday Times story — in terms of implementation of commission recommendations on national security. More on that anon.

First the good news.

Crisis intervention

The Community Access Support Team was launched on Monday morning in Limerick, attended by Garda Assistant Commissioner for the Southern Region Eileen Foster, HSE Mid-West regional executive officer Sandra Broderick, minister for mental health Mary Butler, and minister of state at the Department of Justice James Browne.

As recently revealed in the Irish Examiner, the team is made up of seven people and will work out of Henry St Garda Station.

It includes a clinical nurse specialist, social care worker, a senior social work practitioner, a sergeant, two gardaí, and an administrator.

The team will provide:

• A crisis response service to respond to relevant 999 calls that have been triaged, with the pilot working “day and out of hours”;
• And a community support forum, which is a a multi-agency support forum in Limerick with a case management function for about 20 adults.

The pilot was “launched” on Monday, but the actual start date is “later this year” — perhaps as early as a few weeks.

The commission’s report recommended that these teams should be established “in all” garda divisions in September 2018.

It pointed out that a joint report by An Garda Síochána and the Mental Health Commission back in 2009 called for these crisis intervention teams, but it failed to get Government backing.

The painfully slow progress aside, the launch of the team will be greeted by many — not least by frontline gardaí, who have been the only ones available to deal with the most difficult, traumatic and, potentially, dangerous of situations.

Community safety

The idea of the support team is part of a fundamental rethinking of “policing” recommended by the commission.

It called for a broader objective of “community safety” and for all the relevant State bodies — and, crucially, not just the gardaí — to be legally obliged to work in this area.

These statutory obligations are laid out in the mammoth legislation enacting most of the commission’s report — the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 — which was passed last February.

This legislation was called for by the commission. It recognised that, while crime was a top priority for gardaí, in practice the majority of its time is spent on “harm prevention” — providing services to people with mental health and addiction conditions, homeless people, children, the elderly, and others at risk.

This was part of a broader concept of “community safety” that the commission said needed to be embedded in the Policing and Community Safety Act.

The commission recognised that, while crime was a top priority for gardaí, in practice the majority of its time is spent on “harm prevention”. File Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

This should make the likes of local authorities, health, child, and other social services “required by law” to work with gardaí to protect people from harm.

A key part of the Government’s implementation of this was to create the partnerships and a supporting national structure within the Department of Justice: The National Community Safety Steering Group, the National Office for Community Safety, and a director (Gráinne Berrill was appointed last month).

The partnerships would replace existing joint policing committees and significantly expand the membership to include the relevant State bodies, residents, and more voluntary groups.

The partnerships will also come under the remit of the new Policing and Community Safety Authority (replacing the current Policing Authority and Garda Inspectorate).

Three pilots were established — in Waterford, Longford and Dublin north east inner city

At a launch in Drogheda on Monday, Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced the establishment of seven partnerships — in Kildare, Leitrim, Louth, South Dublin, Sligo, Tipperary and Longford.

She said these partnerships would start drawing up community safety plans. The minister also published a 100-page independent evaluation of the three pilot sites.

The report found the three pilots “broadly achieved” what they set out to do, but it recommended a slow rollout of the partnerships, “phased over five years”, and based on a Local Community Safety Partnership Implementation Plan 2024-2029. This plan would be drawn up by the department, steering group, and the office.

It recommended that the geographical boundaries of the partnerships align, as much as possible, with the radically changed (enlarged) garda divisions — an issue of major contention with garda staff bodies, particularly the Association of Garda Superintendents.

The report also urged that community crime impact assessments be carried out. These assessments are based on an initiative that came from community groups in Dublin’s south inner city and Blanchardstown back in 2019.

The report said “chief areas of concern” for the success of the partnerships include “active involvement” of all State agencies, “recruitment and retention of the right people” including chair, coordinator, and volunteers achieving “good strong community engagement” and resourcing.

Progress, nonetheless.

Security

A third issue that was a key area of concern for the commission — national security — has not been so lucky.

This reality emerged as a by-product of a story in the Sunday Times. The article highlighted efforts by Russian spies to cultivate a member of the Oireachtas, efforts documented by Military Intelligence (J2) and Garda Intelligence.

Ms McEntee said Ireland was “not immune” to these threats and that the country needed to remain “vigilant”.

She added: “We’re updating our laws and again making sure that gardaí have the investment that they require to be able to respond.”

However, an analysis by the Irish Examiner last August highlighted how little of the commission’s recommendations in relation to national security have been implemented.

Specifically, in relation to Garda Security & Intelligence (since renamed Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service), the commission said it should be strengthened through a “ring-fenced budget” and that it should have the ability to recruit specialist expertise — analytical, technological, and legal — “directly and quickly”.

It said these issues were a 'matter of urgency' because of the serious threats to Ireland’s national security

However, we reported that there has been effectively no significant strengthening to Garda Security & Intelligence. The dedicated budget appears to be “off the agenda” and direct recruitment hasn’t progressed.

Separately, oversight judges have repeatedly urged governments to update 30-year-old spy legislation to give gardaí — and Military Intelligence — powers to access modern technologies.

The oversight judges and the Commission on the Defence Forces (reporting February 2022) have also urged legislative underpinning for the work of Military Intelligence, with the latter recommending a significant expansion in staffing and resources of J2.

The commission also urged the immediate establishment of a Strategic Threat Analysis Centre, headed by a “full-time” national security coordinator, answering directly to the Taoiseach, and for this body to develop threat assessments, annual intelligence requirements, and a national security strategy.

What we have is a poorly resourced National Security Analysis Centre. We don’t have a full-time national security coordinator (renamed director of NSAC), and we are still awaiting a national security strategy.

Furthermore, the commission urged the creation of an independent examiner of terrorist and serious crime legislation — a new oversight authority, based on the British model, with sweeping powers of access.

The examiner that is being set up does not have the sweeping legal powers intended and has been statutorily confined to a current or former senior judge, excluding senior barristers and other legal experts (which typically head British and Australian versions).

While the Government has sought names from the Chief Justice for the examiner, there has been little progress in establishing what will be — given the very wide range of responsibilities assigned to it — a sizeable office.