Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was listening to the debate there and I live in the countryside and the city and the element of isolation definitely is a big factor. If one lives in a house on its own with no other house for several hundred metres I agree that there is no doubt that it is safer to live within a short distance of ten houses or more. My mother had an experience a couple of years ago where people came around the house and looked in the kitchen window. She was there on her own and they were complete strangers. They went away again but the impact was traumatic. There is merit in the saying that there is safety in numbers and it means something. Isolation leaves people very vulnerable.