Mr. Jack Nolan:

It is important to say that whereas there may be a perception at times that there is a epidemic of rural crime, there will always be periods of peaks and valleys. The majority of crime occurs in urban areas. From a burglary perspective, this time last year there was much community concern and disquiet about the level of burglaries, but 26% of burglaries occur in rural areas. In the 12 months just ended, there has been a 38% reduction in rural burglaries. It is important to put that figure in the public domain.

There was a reference to livestock theft etc. That issue has emerged but it has always been there. I have no doubt that members might know people in their own constituency who have suffered such losses over the years. There have been a number of major investigations in this regard. In Mullingar there was a particularly high-profile theft of farm animals and a high-profile investigation afterwards. In the Portlaoise area recently, in conjunction with gardaí from Kilkenny, a major crime gang was disrupted, arrested and its members are currently before the courts. In the Cahir area a large number of machinery items were recovered. Significant effort is put into fighting the theft of farm animals, goods, machinery etc. Coupled with this are the significant ongoing crime prevention programmes and they will continue. The committee has probably seen the advertisements for Crimestoppers, with the Irish Farmers Association putting up a substantial sum of money as a reward. All these elements help reduce crime.

The Commissioner has very correctly touched on an issue. The theft of livestock causes concern about where the animals go and if they go into the food chain. We are particularly conscious of that and work very closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in this regard. My colleague, Dr. Singh, manages the public attitudes survey and he can outline how levels of concern and fear of crime vary between different areas. Some people consider it a big problem at a national level but not at a local level. The reality is it is not a huge problem at national level.