Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

The last paragraph of this motion calls on the Government to provide the necessary resources and direction to the Garda to ensure that existing legislation is enforced and public disorder related to so-called superpubs is tackled consistently. At 2 a.m. in every village, town and city during weekends thousands of young people with nowhere to go spill on to the streets from these pubs and nightclubs. This results in serious alcohol related anti-social behaviour. It is time the Garda had the resources to install closed circuit television cameras in large towns and villages. In south Tipperary, such towns include Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir and Tipperary town. I call on the Minister to speed up the process by which closed circuit television cameras will be installed.

The Minister often spoke of recruiting 2,000 extra gardaí, but only 34 extra have been recruited this year. We need additional manpower to police the streets. Ambulance personnel are fearful for their own safety during situations like the ones I just described. They will not even get out of the ambulance until gardaí arrive. We have 39 gardaí in the Clonmel area, which means there are at most seven gardaí on shift at any one time. That is simply not good enough.

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