Mr. Niall Garvey:

I wish to follow up on Mr. Cronin's comments regarding CCTV and technology. The success of the text message alert programme over the past two years shows that technology has a place in assisting communities. We now have over 700 registered text alert groups, and more than 20,000 texts are sent each month to help prevent crime. Our experience shows that where groups are set up to implement the text alert guidelines correctly and where there is a body of such groups in a district then crime is reduced in those areas. The statistics do add up. That group, which is mentioned in the submission, must pay its own costs, which are not extortionate, but when one moves towards CCTV then the costs change completely.