Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I welcome the Garda inspectorate and commend it on its work and some of its excellent and sensible solutions. I feel strongly and passionately that the implementation of its report will result in two key things. First, it will save lives and, second, it will save a lot of money. In the report, the inspectorate says that 75% of its work is low cost or cost neutral work. I wanted to note that much and say that I genuinely feel passionately about the issues raised.

My first question relates to the deployment of resources. This made my blood boil because I have been speaking about this issue for the past ten years in the Oireachtas justice committee. People are not always on duty at the right time or in the right places nor are they doing the right things. We need to deal with the Saturday night-Tuesday morning syndrome. It was said that 48 fewer people were on duty on a Saturday night. Most people know that most anti-social behaviour takes place outside pubs, chip shops and social clubs between midnight and 3 o'clock on a Saturday night, Sunday morning. I am fuming that when the report was carried out, 48 fewer people were on duty on the Saturday night. A higher number of people were on duty on a Tuesday morning, when practically nothing happens. Why is this happening? Does it have to take a Garda inspectorate to see it? Young gardaí in my constituency have been saying this to me for the past ten years. They tell me that if a garda or two were sent up to stand at the local chippers between 12 midnight and 2 o'clock on a Saturday night, anti-social behaviour would be reduced by 60% or 70%. Why is this still happening? I call it the Saturday night-Tuesday morning syndrome.