Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was following the Commissioner's contribution on the monitor. I thank the Chairman for allowing me to contribute.

Ar dtús, I commend the Commissioner on her proactive leadership and on taking up her role. To be fair to her, she has been a very steadying and a reassuring influence. She has been successful in giving the citizen, the person at home, a sense of confidence through her management and her team. That was exemplified also by Assistant Commissioner John O'Mahony who, along with the Chairman and myself, attended the policing forum in Cork recently, at which there was very good engagement. That is more of what we need to be doing in terms of building that relationship, through the policing fora, with local authorities but also with citizens.

Some people have criticised Operation Thor. What is the Commissioner's view of those criticisms? Does she consider they are justified? Is she satisfied with the operation? I acknowledge that Chief Superintendent Finn, the team in Anglesea Street in Cork and others do a great job. Are there specific plans to change how the night time economy is policed in our cities, particularly in Cork city? I refer to people drink driving and young people's use of alcohol. I was surprised and delighted to see a Garda checkpoint at 7 p.m. on my way to the chambers of commerce dinner in the Burlington Hotel. It was fantastic to see that. Some criticisms I have heard, and which I am sure the Commissioner has heard, is that people do not see enough checkpoints, surveillance on the ground or Garda presence.

I am on all the policing forums in Cork and have raised at all of them the point that we need to have a much more proactive approach to drink driving. I am curious to know if there has been a decrease in the number of on-the-spot detection manned checkpoints. There is a sense that there is not that many of them. I was out over the weekend of the jazz festival in Cork and I did not see any checkpoint. I am just curious about that.

Is it the case that in areas where Garda stations have closed, the incidence of crime has increased? I thank the Commissioner's and the force for the work they do. I see what they do everyday. I pay tribute to them and I sympathise with the Commissioner and all her staff on the death of Garda Golden.