Mr. Jer Bergin:

I think there is a strong role for the IFA in this area. We have almost 950 branches across the country. Like the GAA, we are in every parish in every county. Farmers have a unique role to play because they are present in rural areas at times of the day or night when other people are at work or college. Their local knowledge and skills of observation are used as part of the text alert system, for example. Reference has been made to Muintir na Tíre. We are working with the Garda as part of that to get it running better and to spread it out. We intend that all our branch members will be able to be part of community text alert systems, which are used by people to make reports to the Garda when they see something wrong. Such reports go to local gardaí and nobody else. Those gardaí assess the vehicle or whatever it is and make decisions on that basis. It is a case of using local knowledge to help gardaí to do their jobs. Our role does not involve replacing gardaí or the resources that need to come to the Garda to police rural Ireland.