FIANNA Fáil TD Willie O’Dea has called for a study on the reconstitution of the Garda Reserve to be concluded and acted upon as soon as possible.
The Limerick politician is of the view that the Garda Reserve has the capacity to be a powerful adjunct and addition to the Garda force, not just in policing public events but in deterrence, especially in areas afflicted by anti-social behaviour.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy O’Dea also pointed out that as the population increases, more prison spaces will be needed. However, he does not see the route of permanently building prisons and incarcerating people in them as the best option.
“I agree with the Minister that quite a large percentage of prisoners in the country probably should not be in jail. We should deal with them in some other way,” O’Dea said.
“The difficulty is that the non-custodial sanctions we have are pretty useless, not to put too fine a point on it. For example, the recent scandalous revelations about non-collection of fines. We have a very antiquated system of collecting fines in this country. It wastes Garda time going around begging people to keep up their instalments, etc.
“A much more effective way to collect fines would be to apply the attachment system to people’s income, whether it is from employment, social welfare or whatever.”
Deputy O’Dea went on to say that he has come across many cases of people, especially those in deprived areas, on fixed incomes and the elderly, who have incurred financial losses as a result of the activities of people engaged in anti-social behaviour.
“I would like a system to be in place whereby people who are convicted of this anti-social behaviour, whether they are fined or an attachment order or whatever is made against them, that this be directly related to compensating those people for the losses they have suffered,” Deputy O’Dea claimed.
“Some of those convicted are underage. They do not have any income and are not even old enough to be on social welfare. In some, though not all, of those cases, the parents of those kids have made no attempt whatsoever to control their children’s behaviour. In those situations, if that can be established, I would not mind parents being called upon to pay the appropriate compensation.”
