The proposed Garda Reserve is a mad scheme, and someone must shout "stop", writes Joe Dirwan.
I have described the proposal to form a Garda Reserve as a "mad hatter" scheme because I sincerely believe that is what it is.
How else could you describe the proposal to hand full police powers to unprofessional, virtually untrained, unpaid volunteers?
And yet that is what Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell has paved the way for in the Garda Síochána Act, 2005.
He has done so in the total absence of any public demand or debate and, in spite of some publicity in December and January, there still has been no substantive public debate on this issue.
While the Minister has attempted to fudge the issue, and attempted to point the finger at the Garda Commissioner in relation to the proposal on full police powers, the Act - originated, driven and brought through the Dáil by the Minister - clearly opens the way for part-time volunteers to be able to arrest their neighbours and, unless some clear thinking penetrates this mad idea and shouts "stop", that is exactly what is likely to happen.
In making his case the Minister has referred to the alleged success of reserves and special constables in other jurisdictions, and he has emphasised the need to reconnect with communities that have been starved of a Garda presence. I will return to the latter argument later.
The Minister appears to be harking back to an earlier era when volunteer workers were the backbone of communities, to a time when neighbour assisted neighbour in bringing in the hay, ploughing the fields and doing other essential tasks in farm, home and community.
In line with this way of life the first policemen were volunteers - watchmen - who went abroad in the cities of Britain, raising a hue and cry when wrongdoing was detected and bringing out their neighbours to assist in the chase and possible capture. It was the very rag, tag and bobtail effect of this type of unsatisfactory policing, and the growing public unrest at their lawless society, that led Sir Robert Peel to establish the first trained, paid and professional police force in the early 1800s.
Perhaps while McDowell is contemplating the de-professionalising and demoralisation of the police and returning to an earlier, cheaper, age of volunteer watchmen, he could persuade his party colleague, Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney, to return to the time when surgeons were also barbers and carried out their amputations on a part-time, possibly volunteer basis? Of course, and quite rightly, the surgeons gradually established their rights to professional status and eventually the Company of Barber-Surgeons split and the College of Surgeons was formed.
Similarly the legal profession, to which McDowell himself belongs, grew out of clergymen who were attached to royalty and who found themselves obliged to plead their masters' cases in courts. No doubt many were unpaid originally, but, boy, how things have changed to today's highly organised and hugely expensive profession. Why does McDowell not try to introduce voluntary lawyers and save the State billions?
Surgeons and lawyers in Ireland are not likely to return to their unprofessional origins. Why therefore does the Minister expect police people to do so?
In Britain they still retain an element of the old volunteer system in their special constables. They also have Community Service Officers (CSOs) and a range of other part-timers. The numbers in the former are in steady decline overall and many British forces have been compelled to introduce payments to try to retain the numbers.
Most professional police officers at best dislike the latter and they have been the subject of some extremely unflattering press publicity, in spite of the fact that they are paid up to £19,000 per year.
Another reason why Britain continues to need "specials" is the fact that the police have found it extremely difficult to recruit full-time officers, in spite of having very low educational requirements - unlike the Garda Síochána. Most recruitment campaigns for the Garda are vastly over-subscribed and the force is in the excellent position of being able to select the best.
Going back to the Minister's point about the withdrawal of gardaí from the communities and his statement that the reserve would be the "eyes and ears" of the gardaí in those communities. It is not the fault of the gardaí that they have been pulled out, but the continuing failure of the Government to properly resource the force. Garda management has moved to bring most of the force into the bigger towns and cities - in spite of the objections of my association - to mount what is in fact a fire brigade service as they struggle to cope with the myriad of police tasks in Celtic Tiger Ireland. To replace those gardaí in the smaller towns by volunteers who will be their "eyes and ears" - is that really the way we want to go, having neighbour spying on neighbour?
To assist them in their policy of centralising gardaí, the Government established the Strategic Management Initiative that hired consultant firm Deloitte and Touche (of PPARS fame), which came up with proposals to limit the opening hours of some stations and move gardaí away from their communities into their district headquarters.
It has already started to happen with the sale of Harcourt Terrace Garda station in one of the busiest areas of Dublin. Other communities would be well advised to keep a watchful eye on their local Garda station.
My association has told the Minister to scrap his ridiculous Garda Reserve idea. We have told him to resource the existing force properly and to ensure that members of An Garda Síochána, who fill the role of community officers, have a valued place in our police service.
Joe Dirwan is president, Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors