Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I will move to the subject of juvenile liaison officers, JLOs. I note the Garda has 118 JLOs, who are paid a modest allowance of €30 per week. Given that JLOs probably deal with teenagers up to the age of 18 or whatever, I note that much crime begins at that age, before people move on to their 20s. I presume that more crimes are committed by younger people than by older people. Consequently, as an observation, I would have thought the Garda could do with more JLOs. There are more people in receipt of a Gaeltacht allowance than a JLO allowance and I am sure there are more younger people committing crimes than there are people so doing within the Gaeltacht. Consequently, I believe the numbers in this regard could be stepped up.

I refer to the well-discussed issue of the closure of Garda stations. I represent a rural constituency and am on the front line in respect of this issue. However, I am as much concerned about the reduction in opening hours of Garda stations that heretofore were open on a 24-hour basis. For example, Abbeyleix station was a district headquarters and formerly operated on a 24-hour basis. Were its opening hours reduced to a nine-to-five basis or something similar, that would have a far greater negative impact on a wide area than would cutting further the hours of a station that only was open for a few hours each week. As losing 24-hour cover has a greater impact, does the forthcoming plan envisage that many stations will lose their 24-hour cover? I acknowledge that people break into houses during the day and so on but most crimes about which people are worried, in the sense of security, probably are committed during the evening and the night-time. I consider 24-hour cover in Garda stations potentially to be a major issue.