Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

I thank the Deputy. Last Friday, the whole management team went to Limerick and we met with the local team in Limerick. The teams from Askeaton and Newcastle West, in particular, told us about some of the meetings that were held there recently so I am familiar with it. As I have said to Deputy Ferris, at this moment in time we do not have any plans to reopen Garda stations. I hear what Deputy Collins is saying and I think it is important in terms of crime to say that we are working on an anti-crime strategy. Operation Fiacla and the regional operations that supported that were very effective. We are evaluating those at the moment and in the coming weeks we will launch a new anti-crime strategy which will be very focused on the areas that the Deputy is talking about, not only the Limerick areas, but areas where pockets of crime are happening. It will also ensure that we have the agility to respond to it wherever it is happening. As the Deputy says, a lot of it is about reassuring the public and communities, particularly in rural areas. Certainly, as I said to Deputy Ferris, we are very focused on the level of community engagement that we have and looking at new ways of doing that and working in partnership.