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LAST UPDATE | 4 Apr 2023
THE RECENT OPENING of a recruitment campaign for 1000 Gardaí will seem like a no-brainer to many. A target of 800 new recruits in 2022 was missed drastically, with only 94 joining.
The questions around why that number was so low are valid, given ongoing reports about low morale in the force along with today’s headlines showing plans by middle-ranking Gardaí to withdraw labour over rosters.
For those in Ireland who believe the police are ‘on their side,’ recruiting more Gardaí may appear a reasonable investment. Between Garda retirements and trainee resignations, population rises and a drive to increase force diversity, some will believe that more Gardaí creates a safer, fairer country. Of course, this feeling is not universal. How you feel about the police often depends on your position in society.
Many believe that the Gardaí simply reinforce an unequal status quo, protecting property and maintaining a separation between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’
As my colleague Cian Ó Concubhair explained this week, this sentiment underpinned the image that Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin shared at the weekend. It was clear from the political and media storm that followed that different understandings of policing exist in this country.
Some extraordinary outrage responses to this.
— Cian Ó Concubhair (@CianOConcubhair) April 1, 2023
Have people forgotten where the balaclava'd Gardaí in this image is taken from? https://t.co/tGCpJDxPHh
It is not a new observation nor something unique to Ireland that police forces were established to defend property at the expense of equality. From a criminological perspective, these debates will hopefully enable a wider conversation around our expectations of what the police do and achieve and the implications for where best to allocate finite resources.
We can start by understanding the nature of the role itself. Many people, often influenced by the media, think that the Gardaí spend a significant proportion of their time battling organised crime. Yet, crime-fighting of any kind represents a small percentage of police work, and most offences to which police react are at the lower end.
Aside from their legal powers, the key characteristics of policework are the breadth of the tasks we expect them to do and the urgency with which we expect them to act.
We expect police to respond to crime: to investigate, detect, arrest, interrogate and collect evidence. But we also expect them to be ever-present on our roads, at sporting occasions and other events, reassure us with visible patrols and community engagement, and oversee the night-time economy. We seek an immediate response to an array of requests for help: from first-aid, bereavements, missing persons and mental health, to peacekeeping, school support, child protection, lost property and immigration registration.
Our sky-high expectations of Gardaí mean they are social services of first and last resort. As policing researcher Egon Bittner wrote, they must respond to anything ‘that ought not to be happening and about which someone had better do something now.’
It is for these reasons that the police spend only a minority of their time on crime-related activities. The myth that the police are exclusively or primarily ‘crime fighters’ means that the breadth of their role is largely absent from media and political representations of their work.
As Gardaí effectively have an infinite list of tasks, it is very easy to argue for more police to do them. There are certain things I want Gardaí to do more of that require resourcing, such as participate in dialogue with communities. Some Garda activities, from which resources can be reallocated, clearly waste time and cause harm. Whether this would unlock enough resources to provide a meaningful response to, for example, gender-based violence, however, remains uncertain.
Still, we must understand what can and cannot be achieved by increasing officer numbers. For one, we have little reason to suppose that more Gardaí will reduce crime. Researchers have explored the relationship between police numbers and crime rates, concluding that there is insufficient evidence to feel confident of a causal link.
The widespread belief otherwise is what we call the police’s ‘impossible mandate,’ where we expect them to achieve something – crime reduction – that is largely beyond their control. Most crime is neither reported nor detected, people offend for reasons unrelated to police staffing, and police detections are overwhelmingly of low-level offences.
The expectation that police can affect crime levels corrupts both the way we measure police success, and how the police see themselves. It creates perverse incentives to focus on low-level, easily solved crime.
It also means that vital community support is seen as ‘soft’ (inside and outside the force), and is deprioritised as a result.
With more Gardaí, we might expect to see more detections. But we have no reason to believe the average seriousness of detections will increase. As more low-level offences are charged, we may see more court backlogs (to both victims’ and suspects’ detriment), despite evidence that prosecuting low-level offences can increase crime.
More charges might also mean more people who commit minor offences being sent to prison. Irish prisons are dangerously overcrowded with people who commit minor offences or have addiction or mental health issues better treated in the community. This is despite evidence that prison does not reduce, and may even increase, offending. In other words, assuming that increasing police reduces crime could have the opposite effect, putting our safety at risk.
Fortunately, whether new resources are provided or not, Gardaí can keep communities safer by changing their approach. For example, research supports the use of problem-oriented (rather than incident-oriented) approaches to find sustainable solutions to crime and non-crime issues. Proactive problem-solving is cited in the last Garda Policing Plan, but whether or how this happens is unclear. Restorative justice can reduce violence, but the latest data suggest that, too, is seldom employed.
Research commissioned by the Department of Justice found that victim satisfaction relates more to how people feel they are treated than the outcome of their case. Again, Gardaí can radically improve the service they provide by changing, rather than increasing, their activities.
Meanwhile, other countries invest in non-police, but evidence-based, ways to improve public safety. Durham, England, saw reduced reoffending from a programme in which police can refer people who commit even serious offences to mental health, drug and restorative interventions.
Smart forces hire and collaborate with social workers and mental health nurses, and the NHS now works with police to identify people for whom health interventions are the key to crime prevention. Changing drug use from a crime to a health issue had positive effects on Portuguese society.
In Ireland, community mental health and drug treatment services are grossly underfunded, creating work for Gardaí they are not best placed to handle. The Government has provided some new funds for victim support. But you can still count the staff at some of the most crucial services – such as the Crime Victims Helpline, Victim Support at Court and Restorative Justice Services – on one hand.
What if Ireland invested in 800 Gardaí and 200 mental health nurses? Or 900 Gardaí and 100 victim support workers? And where is the investment in early childhood that will have the greatest role in preventing crime in the future?
You may think it should not be ‘either or.’ Perhaps it should not be. But the reality is that resources are finite and their allocation is driven by political perceptions of what government thinks we want them to prioritise – hence the nice, round soundbite of 1000 new Gardaí.
Before allocating finite resources to improve public safety, we must acknowledge the limits of what the police can achieve and the costs of failure to invest elsewhere.
Dr Ian Marder is Assistant Professor in Criminology at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology. He is an expert in criminal justice reform and seeks to communicate the lessons from this area of research to a wider audience.
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Our political elite couldn’t lie straight in bed.
Apple, anyone?
@Trevor Hayden: I think its rather funny that you think our politicans could be described as “elite”.
@Trevor Hayden: Very well put.
@John Ryan: That’s how they see themselves.
@John Ryan:
They have elite salarys
@John Ryan: Their pensions and Salaries could be described as Elite their intellect on the other hand…..
Of course the tax haven is not gonna admit to being a tax haven.
LOL!
And NAMA is ‘doing a fantastic job’
Chemical Pascal.
@Jack McGready: Tax loop holes for the wealthy. none for the PAYE workers. FG/FF gravytrain.
@Jack McGready: The government should now move to apply the 12.5% rate on everything that flows through Ireland, not just Irish sales. To eliminate this talk once and for all.
The multinationals would still prefer it to paying 30% in France but we would be Norway rich!
@Irish “Design”: good idea as long as the “new tax riches “are used to reduce the burden on current tax payers
@Sean Conway:
Why crib? Corporations & multinationals dont have the vote.
Just vote to give citizens living overseas the vote and then we’ll sort out the individuals’ tax woes.
We need a reversal of VAT/Corporate Tax, ie: 22% corporate tax & 12.5% VAT.
How about a new Political Party:
-The Tax Justice Party
-cloud funded
-Tax Policy: Corporate Tax, Individual Tax & VAT set annually at the average rates of the EZ
-That all Irish Citizens are permitted to vote (Stop selling Citizenship to all not born in the island of Ireland & phase out existing citizenship for those
living abroad who were not born in the island of Ireland (Bord Failte using
easy citizenship to Americans who have an Irish ancestor is absurd and
devalues genuine citizenship with full citizen rights including the right to vote)
-Budget health , education & welfare at the EZ average
Let’s face it , if we are genuine about being wanting to be Europeans then what’s wrong with a political/economic policy which aims at the EZ average.?
Perhaps we dont have the self confidence to compete with our EZ peers on a level playing field. It would seem that we prefer to be smartassed as opposed to being smart?
@Sean Conway: It isn’t wealthy individuals that are not paying tax. If you work for Apple here and earn, say, €100,000 the state will quite happily take as much of that as it can get, far more in fact than the UK or most European nations. It’s corporate profits that are the issue in this.
Wow, if Paschal Donohoe and the Dept of Finance say that Ireland isn’t a tax haven, then it must be true. Because as we all know, they are great at explaining anything away with their mumbo jumbo management speak. What a douche.
@Ron O’Keefe:
I’m becoming more and more convinced that Pascal is a programmed humanoid.
Either that or he just loves taking the pith out of the public.
@Jack McGready: He’s an absolute embarrassment. They couldn’t run a newsagent, let alone a country.
@Wez Moore: If they ran a newsagents they would be short on papers.
Setting a minimum tax liability for the multinationals of a paltry 6%, less than HALF of the normal rate, would bring in billions extra and would solve our housing national emergency in the medium term.
@The Risen: Its not that simple. The rate is irrelevant. What’s relevant is what are you applying that rate to. Most multinationals, don’t have a defined revenue stream in Ireland. They bill other entities of the same company in other EU countries for their products or services. Basically they set the price and hence define the revenue and profit for the selling entity. It’s known as transfer pricing. This allows a multinational to increase profits in low tax countries like Ireland. The internal pricing is agreed with the Irish Revenue. And it tends to be a percentage of cost. so they more you pump into the Irish economy the less tax you pay. Its very clever from an Irish point of view.
@CrabaRev: to clarify: so the more you pump into the Irish economy you pay less tax globally, but you pay more tax in Ireland.
Still very clever form an Irish point of view.
@CrabaRev: That’s how Starbucks list Switzerland as the world’s biggest coffee producer. It’s just white collar theft.
There are just two rules for creating a successful tax haven:
1. Don’t tell them everything you know.
2. [Redacted]
Home of the Filthy Rich Tax Haven Emerald Ireland wins Hands Down !
@Johnny Mason: Hah, Pathcal and his somantics.
Good man paschal,keep telling fairytales.
The corporates don’t pay the taxes, their employees do however. We’ve one of lowest entry point to the higher tax band in europe at 33,800. The UK is £46k sterling before 40% kicks in.
@Joshua Walsh: Not to mention that many things which are free at point of use in the UK (GPs, hospitals, university admission and books, the list is endless) are charged for here so that what you are left with doesn’t go as far. Then there is the higher VAT rates, VRT on cars, higher insurance costs…
“Ireland is the number one shifting destination”
Can’t argue with that.
Its the dept of finance job to protect its hidden tax haven status, GDP growing by 26% in 2015 thanks to apple. Wasting taxpayer funds fighting the European commission to protect one multinational knowing that Ireland can’t win only delaying and giving apple cover.
Our labour market is distorted thanks to our tax haven status creating manufacturing jobs in china while we pay more to Europe because our GDP on paper is higher.
Irish people can’t afford homes because that’s another market that completely distorted even the mafia cleans its money on our shores. we allow multinationals to steal other European countries taxes and profit little ourselves.
We have the best paid politicians on this planet who rule without ever worrying about a conflict of interest because they are all at it. Just like the guards and penalty points, no politician will every face justice because we would need to jail they lot.
@leartius: But leartius, don’t you realise some people on here know someone who know someone who works for Intel or Google or Ebay or PayPal or Apple? Their jobs are far more important than the law, justice, morality, fairness, or any of that oul nonsense!
Just from a pragmatic perspective, if Ireland is the base of global operations and they move all non-US profits to Ireland, then to the US via the Caribbean, as long as they are paying EU tax compliant corporation tax rates on those profits, then we are not a tax haven. If we don’t apply those rates through either independent deals to hide or evade those, it is corruption, not systemic tax evasion. We are facilitating lapses in the home countries tax systems, especially the US, but not a tax haven.
@Gulliver Foyle: but if the profits are booked in Ireland and never repatriated to US or anywhere else for that matter and these global corporations are paying negligible amounts of tax then clearly that makes Ireland a tax haven, regardless of the dictionary definition of that term.
The state of this comment section… Zero understanding of global taxation and no interest in trying to understand it. They just wanna sound off and say something populist. Thejournal.ie have linked the research paper at the top. I encourage folks to read it and reflect on why Ireland topped the global list, the nature of the balance sheet items on Irish entities relative to employee numbers and how as a services economy connecting the US to the EU, the results become inevitable. Especially considering the size of the companies relative to the domestic population… Sorry, I meant, that Pascal fella, some fool eh…
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: You cant expect the anti everything crowd to spend their time actually informing themselves of the facts about taxation, what would they complain about in the comments section if they couldn’t ignorantly talk about apples 13 billion?
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: so what your saying is people have it all wrong and that we should encourage the little or no paying of tax by multinationals because we don’t understand the great global taxation plan……ok maybe explain that to the Irish businesses who employ people and who don’t get those sweet heart deals, seems to me if we gonna give it to one why not all companies. Imagine the help this would give struggling Irish businesses who are paying and playing by the rules…..funny that
@Ian McNally: must be great to think you know more than the rest…..and despite what you may have gotten about people’s understanding of this taxation issue, people can see that yes it’s helping employee people and that brings in taxes another way, but also makes a mockery of the likes of the government and IDA etc telling us these companies are here for the great workforce and the rest when it’s only a small percentage of the reason and as I pointed out since we feel so generous giving these deals to multinationals, why not just give it to Irish companies who won’t upsticks and leave when something better comes along……just a thought of a simple lad you think doesn’t understand the global taxation plans
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: it’s good for Ireland in that we get to keep a very small fraction of the forgone tax (200bn annually in the EU) and that helps our economy but we are a global pariah for doing so. Let me put it to you this way. If somebody showed up and said let me sell hot dogs from your front garden and I’ll give you 2% of my takings. Steady income rolling in for us but obvious downsides for all the neighbours. Now do you get it Ciaran with all the fadas? Simple when someone explains it to you really. For tonight’s homework I want you to do the 2 times tables and read page 4 from Ann and Barry.
@Thomas Michael Newell: and yet you still refuse to accept that we arent by any definitionof the term a tax haven, the double irish issue which is what you are refferring is also now no longer possible and will be completely gone by 2021, the narative that we are the worst culprit of this is also incorrect the netherlands dutch sandwich example is far worse, also France who constantly like to hit us as they have a published rate double ours but in reality it is about the same as ours once all their loopholes come into effect, so yes i do believe you dont know anything about this subject. And finally if all the above is true, which it is, then your reasoning that they are primarily here for the tax is completely incorrect.
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: Keep putting those fadas in, Fallon. Makes you feel more Irish than other people does it? Superior? Not populist?
Nearly 100 years of FFG.. We deserve em..
It’s a disgusting practice the department of revenue do the VRT tax it’s an illegal tax they do what they went and allow company’s pay little tax
It’s a bloody joke the sooner the better they sit in front of the EEC and face vast fines for what they are doing
@laurence o neill: VRT is a disgrace, but it’s not unique to Eire. Netherlands, Luxembourg too AFAIK also have the equivalent. The state attitude is only rich ( that is people who work) people run cars, so they can afford it. Can’t be having (little) people not paying tax now, sure we’d be a tax haven then!
Without these multi national companies a huge percentage of the population would be unemployed .
@Jack Goff: We would be back in Ireland post 1990 or probably a lot worse with our debt levels…..basically broke and every Tom Dick and Harry looking for work in other countries, but these countries are fast pulling up the draw bridges to new migrants, so it would be very interested to see what would happen to our unemployed masses if they did pull out…..
@Jack Goff: and the complete over reliance on them means at the drop of a hat they can leave and we are screwed……maybe give these deals to some Irish companies who actually are here cos they want to be not cos we are effectively bribe and begging them
@Jack Goff: Same argument many companies have made to explain why they didn’t pay their employer’s PRSI contributions, if I did I’d have had to close down. Apple et al employ precisely the minimum number they need here, many of whom by the way are US citizens who have moved over, arguably taking a job from an Irish person. Tax fraud is tax fraud, if we ignore morality then ‘but the slaves are keeping the economy going’. If employment is based on robbing our EU partners and the USA of their rightful taxes we should stop doing that and accept the job losses. It’s called not being a banana republic.
Paul Krugman was right this is Lepreachaun economics accounts for 26% growth rate in 2016, meanwhile the EU federalists are biding their time until post brexit , and they come after our 12% corporation rate. They are keeping their powder dry for the moment , because they are using us as a stick to beat the nasty Brits with for the time being, when that is done all bets are off, if it walks like a duck and if it quacks like a duck it`s usually a duck I find
@Patrick James Walsh: Just a matter of time and it won’t be just the EU, President Trump’s USA and Canada and the rest of the OECD want their due. I hope they get it as well. Time to stop the theft.
The dept of finance can dismiss it all they want. Their views on the matter hold very little credence to everybody else.
Sure it’s not a tax haven it’s just a low-tax jurisdiction to route your profits through to avoid paying higher taxes elsewhere.
I don’t particularly care if we’re a tax haven or not. We need jobs, skilled and well paid ones. And we should use every weapon in our arsenal to beat our EU partners into submission at every given opportunity.
@mike scott: Ah the true voice of I’m all right jack. Mixed with the usual Irish nationalist delusion that a tiny state can beat a massive entity like the EU. Cop yourself on.
We don’t do honesty very well, we are like a rogue state
What happened to several large corporations all registered in single houses in Holland. Still going on ?
Of course is the biggest tax haven for multinational corporations. Ask Apple !!!
It’s not for people who is living and working here in Ireland.
Ireland has full tax autonomy, given by the EU if Lisbon mk 2 was passed. The government can set any tax rate they like if it means attracting multi-national companies to set up in Ireland. Whether you think that is right or wrong just remember it has the EU’s blessing.
@John Hagin Meade: If you had followed any of this you would know that the EU is not complaining about the 12.5% rate. It is complaining that Apple et al are not even paying 1%.
“We’re phasing out” – not “We’ve completely phased out”
“We’ve made many of the changes requied” – not “We’ve made all the changes required”
Do we believe the finance minister or real economists at the University of California @ Berkley along with the Danes ?
Off topic, post Brexit is our EU contribution based on GDP or GNI ? – hope it’s the latter.
In shocking developing news, the department of taxation deny any wrongdoing in the department of taxation…
“fails to provide any definition for a tax haven”!
Maybe they assumed that people already knew. Try Googling it.
It is a tax haven. Study after study says it is. Of course our own central bank and politicians are going to reject this every time. Its not in our interest to be seen as such, but the fact is we are and we are seen as this.
If companies are setting up based on your tax model, then you’re a tax haven.
I will say that Ireland does offer more than just being a tax haven, like say, our neighbours Isle of Man, the difference is we do have other benefits, well educated workforce, robust company laws, ease to set up, etc… but these cannot still take away the fact that we are a tax haven. The US is also a tax haven, if you look at certain states like Delaware
Small and medium companies here pay 12.5%. Apple, Google, EBay and the rest don’t even pay 1%, FG need to rethink their attitude to this and own up. It’s at odds with their law and order policy, with fairness and with being a good EU member.
Ah,so that’s why we are doing business with China,,the beef deal and big Bio Pharma company proposed for Dundalk, once you mix with China,its bye bye small fry
My summation of Ireland’s Euro Politechnocrats…
Overweight and sweaty, Mr. Parsons swallows the Party lines whole. In addition to having to endure him as a neighbor, Winston has to work with the man. His unblinking acceptance of the Doctrine makes Winston think Parsons will never be vaporized. But he is surprised in the end to find him at the Ministry of Love, no poorer for having been denounced by his horrible children.
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