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Major capital projects
Justice: Capital projects
Former Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald and former FSI Director General Sheila Willis unveil a model of the new FSI Backweston Campus in 2017.
A number of capital projects in the justice sector are currently in the offing. eolas examines the projects that will change both the physical and digital face of criminal justice in Ireland in the coming years.
Forensic Science Ireland Backweston Campus
Main building works began at the new Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) laboratory in Backweston, County Kildare in April 2020. The new laboratory will include approximately 9,550 square metres of internal floor space, which will include state of the art facilities such as air-exchange control to enable air-flow control in DNA sensitive areas such as the DNA database.
The Backweston Campus will also include an additional building, approximately 485 square metres, in order to provide storage for the items and exhibits that are submitted to FSI for examination. The €65 million building is expected to take in the region of two years to complete. FSI, as part of the Department of Justice, provides a scientific service for the justice sector by providing forensic analysis of crime scene samples and by providing expert evidence in court cases. Initial sod-turning on the project took place in May 2018, however the project was delayed indefinitely in 2018 due to a lack of tender bids.
Tenders were expected to be awarded in summer 2019, but due to changes in international forensic laboratory standards, the merging of FSI with the Garda Technical Bureau and changes to staff numbers, the tender award was pushed back to the latter half of 2019. FSI has recently said that more staff will be needed to staff the new facility, with a 25 per cent jump in the numbers of cases handled reported in 2019, and a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in demand for its services in the first quarter of 2020.
Military Road
Work has begun on the €80 million construction of the new command and control centre for An Garda Síochána on Military Road in Dublin 8, near Heuston Station. Originally projected to finished for July 2022, delays have seen that date revised to September 2022, which has prompted warning from the Office of Public Works (OPW) that any further delays will have “huge financial implications”.
Garda specialist units are currently housed in Harcourt Square, but the OPW’s lease on the building they occupy expires at the end of 2022, requiring the completion of the new facility before then in order to facilitate
the moving. The OPW had voiced its concerns about delays in the signing off of the construction contract at the start of 2020.
Writing in a letter to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and the then Department of Justice Secretary General Aidan O’Driscoll, OPW Chairman Maurice Buckley said that he could not estimate the cost of further delays: “Suffice it to say, it is of a magnitude that none of us as accounting officers could countenance taking every available measure to avoid.”
The command centre will serve as headquarters of the Dublin Metropolitan Region, the Emergency Response Unit, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Special Detectives Unit. It was hoped that the construction of the building would begin in January 2020, but the failure to sign off the works contract until 10 February meant that the appointed contractor, John Paul Construction, could not begin work until late February. The site was then closed from 28 March until 18 May due to Covid-19.
Limerick Prison
Originally approved in 2012 by thenMinister for Justice Alan Shatter, the Irish Prison Service’s redevelopment of Limerick Prison will see them replace the men’s B wing with a 103-cell accommodation block.
Parts of the prison were deemed “not fit for purpose” by a 2012 inspector’s report, causing the uproar that precipitated the passage of the redevelopment plans. The Inspector of Prisons noted serious problems in the prison’s A and B wings such as overcrowding and poor physical conditions.
The refurbishment will include ancillary support services such as additional recreational facilities, kitchen facilities, a dedicated committal unit and a high support unit. In-cell sanitation will also be provided in order to put an end to the practice of slopping out.
At the time of the announcement, 104 inmates were housed in the 55 A and B wing cells, marking an almost 200 per cent use of the single-cell design
Works at Limerick Prison are due for completion in 2021.
capacities. The project has, since its initial conception, been expanded to also include the building of a new women’s prison.
The awarding of the construction contract for the project was challenged in 2019, although the challenger, Glenbeigh Construction, did agree to the lifting of an automatic stay on construction that the legal challenge would typically trigger due to the “extremely grave” conditions within the prison.
In 2019, it was reported that the Irish Prison Service was struggling to house female inmates after a 20 per cent rise in their numbers over two years. The Limerick Prison redevelopment looks set to play a large role in the alleviation of the problem but is not due for completion until 2021.
Garda ICT programme
Writing in his foreword to the Policing Authority’s seventh and final progress report into An Garda Síochána’s implementation of the 2015 Changing Policing in Ireland report, then-Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD wrote that he was “struck by the Authority’s observation that insufficient attention has been and continues to be given to the key enablers of change such as the organisation’s HR, ICT, training and finance functions”. The inclusion of ICT will especially be unwelcome news in the justice sector, given the pledging of €342 million of capital funding between 2016 and 2021 for the ongoing Garda ICT programme, including €65 million in 2019.
The focus on ICT improvement was once again emphasised when Garda Commissioner Drew Harris wrote in his in his foreword to the force’s 2018 report that An Garda Síochána was “under strain” in areas that included the introduction of new ICT programmes. Alarm was raised in the midst of this programmes when it was reported that Garda ICT budgets would be cut in order to pay for the June 2019 visit of US President Donald Trump. This alarm was emphasised by an internal Garda report showing failing with Garda DNA testing management, wit a quarter of Gardaí taking samples found to be doing so without proper training. The cuts were condemned by the Garda Representative Association.
In March 2019, Flanagan answered a Dáil question saying that “a number of key ICT initiatives are moving to implementation phase”, including: roll out of the Rosters and Duty Management System; phased implementation of the Mobility project for secure mobile access to Garda systems; roll out on a pilot basis of the Investigations Management System; and the establishment of the remaining Regional Control Rooms and the staged deployment of a new national Computer Aided Dispatch System. The thenMinister added that “a project to enhance network access to rural Garda stations is also currently being progressed”.
Probation working through the challenges of Covid-19
Community service participants at work.
With a newly appointed Director, Mark Wilson, at the helm, the staff of the Probation Service have continued to provide a range of vital services in communities nationwide throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Probation Service is the lead agency in the assessment and management of offenders in the community in Ireland and works with over 10,000 offenders on any given day. With over 400 staff working in over 50 community and prison settings, we support public safety by assisting the judiciary with sentencing decisions and by supervising offenders in their community, aiming to bring about positive change in the behaviour of those we work with. In 2019, the Probation Service completed over 16,000 Probation Assessment reports for the District, Circuit and Central Criminal Courts.
As the newly appointed Director of the Probation Service, I am committed to ensuring high levels of collaborative working with our criminal justice partners. My career to date, including a position as Deputy Director of Operations in the Irish Prison Service, has given me many opportunities to develop and recognise the value of such collaboration. I am particularly focused on the need to strengthen the joint approach to offender management across the criminal justice system, further improve public safety and achieve better outcomes in the management, rehabilitation and integration of offenders.
Indeed, during an earlier period of my career in the Probation Service, I contributed to the setting up of both the Sex Offender Risk Assessment and Management (SORAM) and the Joint Agency Response to Crime (JARC) models of joint offender management, examples of interagency work at its most effective.
Covid-19 and the Probation Service
Being appointed to this position in the midst of a pandemic has certainly been a dynamic and challenging experience. The Probation Service delivers services through and to people, and the impact of various government restrictions have been challenging. However, I have been heartened and inspired by the flexibility, adaptability and resilience of the staff right across the service, which has been nothing short of extraordinary in these already extraordinary times.
Once the effects of Covid-19 on our working practices became evident, the Probation Service reviewed its workload and identified about 1,000 persons whose behaviour needed particular attention during the pandemic in addition to maintaining oversight and engagement with others under supervision. We have also played a significant role in supporting access to justice through our work, by continuing to provide pre sanction assessment reports to the Courts Service to allow for the imposition, by the judiciary, of appropriate custodial or communitybased sanctions.
release and supervision of many carefully selected prisoners, in close partnership with the Irish Prison Service, through programmes such as Community Return. This work has allowed for additional space across the prison estate which has contributed in no small part to keeping our entire prison system relatively Covid-free since March. We have seen in other jurisdictions how Covid-19 can run rampant through a prison population, and keeping the virus out of prisons has been a particular success in the criminal justice system’s response to Covid-19.
As the year has progressed, our ‘Return to Work Safely’ protocol, and the control measures in place for each of our offices, has allowed us to continue to deliver our essential public services in a safe manner. All of our work, including community supervision, has had to be adapted in recent months. To allow for the continuation of our essential services, we have implemented changes to ensure our clients can stay safe, as well as introducing new practice guidelines which cover working, supervising and engaging with the people we serve. The Probation Service has been agile and flexible in devising new ways of working, allowing us to provide the best quality interventions and practice in these changed times.
Our Probation Officers are highly trained professionals who use their skills, knowledge and constructive engagement with their clients to provide vital services and effective supervision every day. They work with their clients to bring about necessary change in their lives and to help them choose a different path in life, one away from criminality. Adapting to the challenges presented by the pandemic has, in many ways, demonstrated the essential value of this close connection between our probation officers and their clients, and the communities in which they live.
The work of community service supervisors has also been crucially important during the pandemic, and they have actively contributed to the development of the new ‘Covid specific’ procedures which are key to implementation, review and development of these services. Their collaborative work in this area allowed for Community Service sites to begin to reopen on a pilot basis in Dublin, in midJuly. We have now further developed our operating procedures in line with public health guidance to support the safe reopening of outdoor Community Service sites throughout the country, albeit on a reduced scale.
and co-operation in maintaining services and sustaining people through the crisis. It’s important to recognise the broad range of people we work with, many with complicated life experiences, and heightened difficulties some have faced in their lives, particularly during the earlier lockdown phases, including those dealing with mental health, addiction and physical health issues.
We also undertake a lot of work with teenagers and young people, and our colleagues in Young Persons Probation have noted that lockdown was particularly difficult for this group who, like other young people their age, need routine, peer support and to be kept busy. Their regular contact with probation officers and partner organisations in the community throughout the pandemic has helped to keep many young people motivated and their families connected with vital practical and emotional supports.
Technology has also helped in sharing knowledge, working collaboratively and co-operating with criminal justice partners across the island of Ireland, our neighbouring countries and with other probation organisations in Europe. We maintain a strong link with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, the UK and with our many European partners, and it is particularly interesting to observe how the challenges faced within each jurisdiction are so similar.
The Probation Service will continue to adapt to the challenges that our new working reality presents. While there is still a considerable way to go, we can look forward to the passing of this crisis, while learning to manage the post-Covid ‘new normal’. I look forward to continuing to work closely with our criminal justice, government and community partners to progress our shared vision and objectives for the Probation Service into the future.
E: psinfo@probation.ie W: www.probation.ie Twitter: @probation_irl
Garda reform
In March 2020, just days before the Covid-19 lockdown took effect, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris announced the latest phases in the reform of An Garda Síochána, which seeks to decentralise policing power and place an emphasis on community policing.
The phase announced by the Commissioner in March began the introduction of the Garda Operating Model, which will see more frontline Gardaí recruited and a greater emphasis placed on community policing. The phased introduction will see the allocation of chief superintendents and superintendents to each of the 19 Garda divisions; these allocations come after 640 Gardaí had been redeployed from administrative roles into the frontline.
These changes have all been made as part of the implementation plan that followed the publication of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland’s 2018 report. The new number of divisions are also a result of these reforms, with the previous numbers of 28 divisions within six regions having been reduced to 19 divisions in four regions, as was originally announced in August 2019.
The six regions of Dublin Metropolitan, West, South, South East, East and North have now been condensed into Dublin Metropolitan, North-West, South-West and East. The 19 divisions within these regions will all have chief superintendents allocated to them, with those chief superintendents acting as de facto commissioners for their area, allowing the Garda force within their divisions to act as miniature autonomous police forces.
These changes are central to the overall attempt to decentralise power within An Garda Síochána and have decision making mover from Garda Headquarters into communities. The reduction in the number of regions and divisions has meant that areas and former divisions have merged. In the East, Meath and Westmeath have merged, along with Laois-Offaly and Kildare, Wicklow and Wexford and Kilkenny-Carlow and Waterford. Kerry, Limerick and Cork city all remain as they were in the South-West, with Cork North and Cork West merging, along with Tipperary and Clare. Galway will remain as is in the North-West, while Mayo merges with RoscommonLongford, Donegal with Sligo-Leitrim and Cavan-Monaghan with Louth. All Dublin divisions have been untouched.
Chief superintendents taking control of their divisions will have four subordinate superintendents, two of whom will be responsible for public engagement, one heading up criminal investigations and one responsible for performance
assurance across all areas of police work. It is said that the key function of the superintendents tasked with public engagement will be constant communication with community leaders and organisations in order to ensure that local policing is in line with the onthe-ground reality within the communities.
Chief superintendents will have the power to design bespoke policing plans for their divisions and allocate their resources as they see fit as a result of the power that has been devolved to them from the Phoenix Park as part of a concentrated effort to deliver more community-focussed policing that responds to the concerns of residents rather than previous one-size-fits-all model that had been decided in Dublin.
Harris has outlined his reasoning for reducing the number of divisions, saying that having 28 had weakened policing in each of the divisions. An example he cited was that of small numbers of detectives with an expertise in sex crimes being constantly pulled into other types of criminal investigations within their divisions due to a lack of Garda numbers. Under the new plan, Gardaí with expertise in sex crime investigations will create a dedicated sex crime unit within their enlarged division once amalgamations have been competed, allowing previously stretched Gardaí to focus on their areas of expertise. This will mark the first time Gardaí will be assigned to only investigating sex crimes, and this model will be repeated across all crime types, with specialist teams dedicated to specialist areas.
In an effort to have more Gardaí on the frontline, Garda administrative offices and processes have also been majorly overhauled. Before the reforms, there were 124 administrative offices offering support to senior Gardaí in the regions, divisions and districts; most of these 124 offices were staffed by Gardaí. Under the reforms, the number of these offices will be drastically reduced to 19, one for each division. The offices will now be staffed by civilians, under the stewardship of an assistant principal officer, and will manage human resources, expenditure, procurement, sick and annual leave, personnel transfers and other staffing matters. Civilians entering these offices will have the necessary training and expertise to relieve Gardaí from deskbound jobs. It is also hoped that the appointment of experienced professionals to oversee the business services in these offices will help to professionalise the service, which manages the affairs of up to 800 personnel per division.
Garda recruitment has also been accelerated in a bid to further increase the number of frontline Gardaí, with a target of 15,000 sworn members – a record if it is reached – within two years. The result of the civilianisation of the administrative offices means that 1,800 Gardaí will be moved into frontline work such as beat patrolling and criminal investigations.
Harris has said that extra numbers on the ground will mean all areas getting a better policing service, one that is more visible on the streets. An example of this is the amalgamation of two regions within Cork city, which led to the doubling of the number of Gardaí in community policing capacities to 440.
Along with the additional 1,800 new frontline Gardaí, 75 new inspectors and 150 new sergeants are also being put in place with the aim of ensuring that the larger number of rank-and-file Gardaí will have the required supervision. Inspectors will now be tasked with the
management of most Garda stations, a responsibility that had previously lain with superintendents. The reorganisation will result in a slimming down of the organisation from the top, with the loss of chief superintendents designed to be minimal, but larger losses at the superintendent level are almost certain with the aim to create more rank-and-file Gardaí, inspectors and sergeants.
Speaking after the announcements in August 2019, Pat Ennis, General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association said that he had been assured that “the plan was not necessarily the last word on the issue” and the Association of Garda Superintendents described the reorganisation as “ill-advised”. Despite then-Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan backing the plan, saying it would “reduce bureaucracy” and “delver an improved, more consistent, highly visible policing service in communities”, it appears that Drew Harris’s next challenge will be getting buy-in down the ranks as he seeks to deliver on reforms that have been mooted long before he took up his post as Garda Commissioner in September 2018.
Science Supporting Justice A Profile of Forensic Science
Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) is an associated office of the Department of Justice and Equality. We work together to deliver, to best international standards, comprehensive scientific analysis, independent expert opinion, advice and training to support the Irish justice system, writes Chris Enright, Director General of FSI.
Who we are
Originally known as the Forensic Science Laboratory, FSI was established in 1975 to provide a scientific service to the Criminal Justice System by analysing samples submitted from crime scenes and providing expert evidence in criminal trials. In June 2014, President Higgins extended our scope when he signed into law the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014. Under this act, FSI is named as the custodian of the DNA database and our name was changed from the Forensic Science Laboratory to Forensic Science Ireland to recognise this broader remit. In December 2019, the responsibility for the Fingerprints and Documents and Handwriting services transferred from the Garda National Technical Bureau to Forensic Science Ireland. This consolidates most laboratory-based forensic work in the State under Forensic Science Ireland. FSI currently has 190 staff, including seconded Garda members, scientists and analysts trained in forensic testing and reporting techniques, supported by administration professionals. FSI is accredited to the ISO17025 (2017) standard and holds a Gold Excellence Through People (ETP) certification. FSI is also a founding member of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI), as well as the Association of Forensic Service Providers (AFSP). These organisations are focused on developing and sharing best international forensic practices and research within its members. Our staff are active on all the relevant ENFSI and AFSP working groups to ensure that expert evidence that we present is grounded in the most recent scientific research and best international practice.
What we do
Although much of FSI’s work happens in the laboratory, we play an important role through the criminal investigative and judicial process from crime scene to court. In broad terms, forensic investigations involve the examination of items recovered from crime scenes and the use of various techniques to investigate links between suspects and complainants, and between suspects and scenes. This is underpinned by an objective evaluation of context and scientific facts, which can lead to the exoneration of suspects. This evidence is available for review by experts acting on behalf of the defence and is subject to cross-examination by defence counsel at trial. There are few major criminal trials that do not feature some contribution from FSI. We work on cases that range from murders, shootings, serious assaults, sexual assaults, drug seizures, burglaries, explosive finds and reported on over 16,000 cases last year. FSI also supports the delivery of training programmes within the justice sector, including crime scene investigation and evaluation, evidence recovery for Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs) and presumptive drug testing.
The analysis of materials thought to contravene the Misuse of Drugs Acts constitute the highest number of submissions to FSI and are supported by the Chemical Analysis department. Case submissions vary widely in size, drug mix and complexity. These cases can involve new psychoactive substances that pose particular analytical challenges. The drugs team have influenced legislation through the identification and characterisation of drugs in the marketplace. In addition to drugs submissions, debris samples from suspicious fires are analysed for accelerants (e.g. petrol), offensive sprays (such as pepper spray) are evaluated and toxicology samples associated with sexual assault cases are analysed and evaluated.The Physical Analysis area is the most recently formed department in FSI and was set up to take advantage of the overlaps between disciplines moving from the Garda National Technical Bureau (Fingerprints and Documents & Handwriting) and disciplines already supported within FSI. This department supports a diverse range of examinations where trace evidence recovered from scenes or suspects (e.g. glass, paint, fibres or firearm residue) is compared to reference samples. Items
recovered from crime scenes are examined to enhance any marks or impressions present, e.g. the digital capture of finger marks using various light sources, footwear or tyre impressions or manufacturing marks on plastic bags. Suspect materials are also analysed for explosives and unknown chemicals within this department.
The area of most sustained growth is DNA, which is also the discipline of greatest recent developments. In the DNA area, DNA profiles are generated from submitted items and compared with DNA profiles obtained from suspects to assist the investigation of crimes ranging from burglaries to sexual assaults and murder. Blood Pattern Analysis (BPA) and the examination of damage to clothing are also carried out.
FSI has focused on extending its intelligence services over the past five years, in addition to its well-established evidential services. The objective of these services is to provide relevant and timely information that can help An Garda Síochána and other police forces throughout investigations. For example, in addition to providing evidential information on specific drugs cases, FSI also provides intelligence information on drug purity and adulterants that is useful in understanding drug supply chain trends. FSI manages the National DNA Database and its use and impact have grown considerably since its launch in 2015. Since the database was launched, over 3,500 investigations have been assisted by the database – by matching individuals to evidence recovered from crime scenes (called crime stains) or connecting crime-stains into clusters from the same unknown individual. FSI provides two biometric services – DNA and fingerprints – that offer compelling intelligence and evidential information when comparing an individual to a stain or mark recovered from a crime scene.
The international dimension of this intelligence service has grown over the past year. Since 2019, FSI is exchanging DNA profiles and fingerprint records with other European countries through the Prüm Treaty. This treaty allows for the automated anonymous comparison of profiles or records among participating countries and enables fast information exchange for intelligence purposes. This is already having an impact – for example, two sexual assaults in Ireland were linked to an individual on the Austrian database within days of connecting the databases. In addition, fingerprint records will be exchanged soon through the Schengen Information System (SISII) – this is the most widely used and largest information sharing
system for security, law enforcement and border management in Europe.
FSI has been able to grow our contribution to Missing Persons investigations due to advances made in the extraction of DNA from bones, improved DNA profiling as well as the DNA Database system and relationship matching software. We maintain a database of family members (currently with over 470 profiles) that are compared with human remains that are discovered. The improvements made in technology and systems, coupled with effective cooperation with the Garda Missing Persons Bureau, have allowed us to identify the remains of eight missing people in 2019 and five people so far in 2020. FSI is very committed to advancing our technology, our systems, and processes to continuously develop this service.
What the future holds
As in other jurisdictions, the demand for forensic services has more than doubled over the past five years and is expected to grow even further over the next three years. FSI has developed a strategic plan that maps out how we would like to improve and grow our services over this period. These plans are enabled by the construction of a new purpose-built FSI facility at the Backweston Science Campus. The design of this new facility will support the analysis and evaluation of trace evidence to the most exacting international standards as well as providing significant additional space and capacity for submissions, case work and the introduction of new forensic services. FSI is proud to have very capable and talented forensic practitioners, analytical staff and administrative professionals in our organisation – they are highly regarded for the services that we deliver today within the forensic networks that we cooperate with. The additional capacity enabled by our new facility will allow us to develop and introduce new techniques that can support criminal investigations more efficiently and effectively, with a positive impact on the justice system. We will expand the range of countries we exchange biometric information with and will work on maximising the investigative and intelligence potential from the combination of these services. We plan to expand our drugs intelligences services also by providing scientific and analytical insights on synthesis, manufacturing, content and distribution. We plan to improve and develop our ICT systems so that we are consistent with the latest international standards for biometric databases and analysis tools. A sustained investment in Forensic Science Ireland over the coming years, with effective partnership and integration across the justice sector, will have a profound impact on a safe, fair and inclusive society.
The next three years will be a time of significant change for FSI. We are embracing the challenges ahead and are firmly focused on our mission that the Backweston investment enables – to provide the Irish justice system with a high quality integrated forensic service through independent, expert scientific analysis and advice to best international standards.
Garda HQ / Phoenix Park / Dublin 8 / D08 HN3X T: +353 (0)1 666 2910 E: info@fsi.gov.ie W: www.forensicscience.ie
