The Gazette 1987

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GAZETTE APRIL 1987
In
this
Issue
Viewpoint 107
Law Society Annual
Conference 122
Capital Acquisitions Tax -
Double Convention
with the U.S. 125
Administration of Estates 129
Law Reform Commission 131
Professional Information 137
Executive Editor:
Mary Buckley
Editorial Board:
Charles R. M. Meredith, Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gary Byrne
Daire Murphy
Michael V. O'Mahony
Maxwell Sweeney
Advertising:
Sean O hOisin. Telephone: 305236
307860
Printing:
Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford.
The views expressed in this publication,
save where otherwise indicated, are the
views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of
the Society.
The appearance of an advertisement in
this publication does not necessarily
indicate approval by the Society for the
product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7
Tel.: 710711. Telex: 31219.
Fax: 710704.
GAZETT INCORPORATE D
LAWSOCIETY
OF IRELAND
Vol. 81 No. 4May 1987
Viewpoint
Garda Training Report
It is to be hoped that the current
restrictions on public sector spend-
ing will not result in delay in im-
plementing the recommendations
of the recently published report on
probationer training of the Garda
Training Committee.
It is an unspoken criticism of the
existing training system that the
proposals of the Committee do not
appear startling or radical but
entirely logical.
Perhaps the most interesting
section of the Report is that deal-
ing with the role and function of the
police in modern society. The Report
offers the following definition:
A. To provide services within a
legal framework and in accord-
ance with the social values and
aspirations of a democratic
society in order to help the com-
munity;
(i) To protect life and proper-
ty, by guarding, patrolling
and anticipating danger not
only from criminal acts, but
also from those acts which
are natural, accidental or
unintentional;
(ii) To safeguard the liberties of
the individual and preserve
the public peace by seeking
to create and maintain con-
ditions under which people
may go about their lawful
affairs undisturbed and pro-
tected from harmful and
dangerous conduct;
(iii) To prevent crime and to
seek, identify and eliminate
the causes of crime;
(iv) To detect offenders if crime
is committed.
B. To encourage and advise the
community on how to protect
their persons and property from
criminal behaviour.
C. To provide guidance and assist-
ance:
(i) In helping young people to
achieve social maturity;
(ii) In cases of tragedy, or family
and/or other personal crises.
It would be difficult to argue that
our society has not come to expect
its police force to perform most, if
not all, of these functions. It is
obvious that only the most rigorous
selection and training of recruits
can lead to the establishment of a
police force which can attempt to
provide all those functions for our
society.
The Report sees a neepl to com-
pletely revamp the recruitment pro-
cess to meet the twin goals of
efficiency and effectiveness. The
screening out at an early stage of
candidates who are clearly not
suited for recruitment to the force
is an aim that should be urgently
pursued. The introduction of psy-
chological and aptitude testing as
well as stringent medical tests at
an early stage of the recruitment
process should lead firstly to a
reduction in the number of those
who proceed on to the final selec-
tion process and, secondly, to an
improvement in the standard of
those ultimately who are accepted
as recruits into the force.
The recommendations that during
the " on the beat" segments of the
training programme that recruits
should be attached to tutor gardai
and that each division should have
training sergeants whose principal
function would be to monitor the
effectiveness of the training pro-
gramme for recruits in their division
coupled with the fact that the
recruit should not in future be
regarded as part of the normal
strength of a garda division (and
therefore liable to be used to per-
form any of the normal functions of
a garda) until after his second " on
(Contd. on p.109)
107