John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My sense is that if that policy changed, the public would have absolutely no problem spending the money. One might be talking about Thornton Hall then.

Mr. Waters brought up the issue of burglary. In recent days it was announced that €5 million of public money was going into Operation Thor. When I heard that, I wondered where this money will go. Will it be allocated for surveillance or, in particular, for overtime, which is the issue in my opinion? What geographical areas will it go to? When one looks at the burglary figures for the past seven years, one can see that they have gone up significantly in many respects and in many parts of the country. They have gone up massively in Dublin. In Waterford in my constituency, they have gone up by 32% in those seven years. In the south east generally, Wexford is at 39% and Carlow-Kilkenny is at 17%. The south east has been hit, not as badly as Dublin, but there is certainly a problem and it is growing. Is the Department allocating that €5 million to the Garda and allowing it to apportion that where it sees the problem and where it sees burglaries arising or will it be spread throughout the country?