Honouring pledge is real answer

AT a cursory glance, Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s proposal to privatise a range of activities currently carried out by the Gardaí would, on the face of it, seem eminently sensible.

Indeed, it is a concept long raised by successive ministers.

But if throwing additional resources into the fight against crime means closing small garda stations in rural areas, it could prove counter-productive, especially since it would further erode the fabric of society in the country's outlying regions.

If the Government is genuine about beefing up the force for the battle against crime, it would be more appropriate to deliver on its election pledge to recruit 2,000 extra gardaí, a promise increasingly unlikely to be honoured with each passing day.

Minister McDowell has a regrettable propensity to seek political capital from off-the-cuff announcements, often without thinking them through.

His proclivity for the grand gesture was seen in the threat to close jails in order to eradicate overtime payments to prison officers. The gratuitous smearing of crime journalists, whom he accused of bribing garda contacts, was another glaring example of shooting from the hip. In similar vein, the minister has threatened to fine and even imprison gardaí who impart information to the press, widely perceived as a knee-jerk reaction to publication of his son's name after he was assaulted.

Characterising this Government's repressive attitude towards the media, the Freedom of Information Act was emasculated. Moreover, if Minister McDowell accepts the concept of a statutory press council proposed by his narrowly-based expert body, Ireland would become the only country in Europe with government representation on such a council.

No doubt, gardaí would be freed for other duties if such routine activities as delivering summonses, handling firearms certificates, stamping passport applications, processing fines and the penalty points system were farmed out to the private sector. But shutting down rural garda stations for the sake of expediency is not the answer.

It would be folly to pretend crime is an exclusively urban phenomenon. Ireland's drug culture is not confined to our cities and towns. Geographically, one is much more likely to encounter the problem of drink-driving in rural areas.

Closing down small stations is hardly likely to result in more aggressive enforcement of the penalty points system. Indeed, in a tragic sign of the times, spinal injuries in road accidents are on the increase again despite a dramatic 50% drop in the first six months of the penalty points system amid fears that drinking and driving is persisting. Whether this means the psychological impact of the campaign has weakened, or the level of enforcement has fallen off, is still unclear.

Whatever the reason, the result is starkly seen in the growing number of serious injuries in crashes. Despite a welcome reduction by 70 in road accident fatalities over the past 12 months, it would be a major setback if the positive effects of the points system were lost.

It is vital to provide the gardaí with adequate resources, not alone to enforce the penalty points system, but also for the fight against organised crime, drug pushing, money laundering, and intimidation of the public by gangland figures.

The bottom line is that if the Government is genuine about establishing greater garda presence on the beat, then it must be prepared to take on extra gardaí. What the public wants is action not ill-conceived promises.