MEMBERS OF the Garda Reserve are to have their powers increased to deal with public order offences and the seizure of vehicles, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has told the Dáil.
Training to deal with domestic violence, child-protection and conflict-resolution will begin later this year for members of the Garda Reserve, who will also be issued with Tetra radios on duty.
Reserve gardaí now represent 10 per cent of the force, with 918 on duty and 225 in training and including 60 members from 27 other countries. Recruitment was ongoing because they were volunteers, Mr Shatter said.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara Calleary said: “It is time we put it up to the Garda Commissioner that this asset must be utilised more.”
The Mayo TD highlighted gaps in policing and Garda strength. He said the reserve was a “massive resource here that is not being utilised to its potential effect”.
More experienced members of the reserve could act as community gardaí and engage with communities on crime prevention, where there were significant gaps.
This was an opportunity, he added, for the Garda Reserve to work in an area “which does not require them to get involved in exposing themselves to the implementation of the law” but to which they could bring their live experience.
“Youth-diversion projects do fantastic work,” Mr Calleary said. The more experienced reserve gardaí, “such as retired people who now have time, could be inserted into the role”. It was a “potentially fantastic resource which was not being sufficiently utilised” and “we must challenge the commissioner so that in the policing plan for 2013, a specific part would be allocated to the targets he is setting for the Garda Reserve”.
Mr Shatter said he envisioned an expansion of areas in which the Garda Reserve could operate, “but it is of vital importance that appropriate training is provided before they engage in new duties”.
He highlighted the nationalities in the Garda Reserve, including Argentina, Poland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, China, Italy, Cameroon, Morocco, Moldova and Japan.
He believed they could play a significant role in developing links between the Garda and the foreign national communities and said it was important “the Garda Reserve, the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces reflect the changing face of this country and that smaller communities who are settled in this country are properly represented”.
Mr Shatter said he hoped that when Garda recruitment resumed in a better economic environment, “that there will be representatives of minority communities who are settled in this country who are recruited”. In the meantime it was a “welcome development that we have this multinational engagement in the Garda Reserve”.
