Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I am glad Nenagh is always to the fore of the Minister's mind when he examines upgrading for the Garda Síochána.

I welcome the provision of additional gardaí, a matter on which the Minister has acted in good time. He did not wait for construction to take place at Templemore before training the gardaí. I welcome that construction of the four-storey block in Templemore is well under way and that the Minister has provided accommodation for gardaí in nearby Nenagh while training is ongoing. The Minister is also working to ensure an adequate number of the additional 2,000 gardaí will go to rural areas outside Dublin. The Minister recently acknowledged at a committee meeting that growing areas of population outside Dublin have a minimal number of gardaí who do their best but struggle with the limited staff available to address anti-social problems and larger issues of crime. The Minister should adequately provide rural areas with gardaí trained at Templemore and open additional Garda stations.

Táim an-bhuíoch as ucht an seans labhairt ar an mBille tábhachtach seo inniu. Táim ag súil le níos mó oibre ar an reachtaíocht agus táim ag brath ar na grúpaí éagsúla, go mórmhór an Garda Síochána. I would welcome further submissions from the Garda Síochána on the Bill.

I welcome to Leinster House the deputation from the Nenagh community reparation project, the unique project which I hope will eventually become a statutory body. It has worked successfully on the area of reparation and involving the community with local justice issues. It serves not to replace the judicial system but to work with it by making people accountable and responsible for their misdemeanours and offences, and when they return eventually to court, with the assistance of the community panel, to see that their contract has been fulfilled. The deputation will attend the community policing hearings at the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Law Reform this afternoon. I look forward to the expansion of this project as a model for other areas to adapt.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. I welcome further work on the Bill, in which I am particularly interested.

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