Niall Blaney (Donegal North East, IND-FF)

The issue of increasing criminality in Donegal is continuously to the fore and it will not go away unless there is serious intervention from the Government. I witness many crime problems in my constituency in Donegal but, unfortunately, we are not being offered many solutions. With a large part of Donegal bordering Northern Ireland, we are subject to significant additional cross-Border crime. This creates its own problems as it lends itself very well to criminals returning across the Border after perpetrating a crime and, most likely, never getting caught. More effective cross-Border policing is a must to catch the perpetrators of crime. At a time when efforts are being made to re-establish the Assembly and its institutions, I have serious concerns about cross-Border co-operation and the relationship between the Garda in Donegal and its counterpart in Northern Ireland.

Local newspapers are filled constantly with stories of desecrated schools, private property, commercial premises and so on. One wonders where it will all end. We also experience the problems associated with over-consumption of alcohol and drugs, speeding and drink driving. The list is endless. I had a glance through a local newspaper this morning and it contained reports of cars stolen and damaged, a school broken into and windows smashed for the fifth night in a row, an attack on a young woman at the weekend, damage to a new football pitch caused by cars driving on its surface with one of the cars set alight, windows broken in commercial premises, houses broken into and contents stolen, and a malicious fire in another school. That is an incredible list of crimes in one local newspaper in a rural county such as Donegal.

Garda resources and manpower in Donegal is the major problem, particularly along the Border. The crime rate in the county will not reduce until a realistic allocation of Garda resources is provided. We are faced with more sophisticated crime and criminals nowadays and, therefore, we need equally sophisticated personnel and equipment to deal with them. Donegal is largely a rural county and if criminality cannot be controlled in our rural areas, we have little chance of controlling it in our larger cities.

I refer to an incident that happened on Easter Sunday morning involving Councillor Francis Conaghan, who is a former chairman of Donegal County Council. Both his vehicles were stolen that morning and they were used in several crimes. If the perpetrators had not been caught in the middle of one crime, God knows how many other crimes would have been committed. However, the perpetrators escaped and wrecked one of the councillor's cars while the other car was recovered with minor damage. The criminals' spree was stopped by a householder, not the gardaí, in Manorcunningham. When gardaí were called, it took them 40 minutes to respond and by that time the criminals were long gone. When they arrived, the gardaí did not have as much as a lamp to search around the house. That is why I began to question Garda resources. Many items were taken from the house, including a quantity of money. The perpetrators of the crime escaped back across the Border where they were caught by the PSNI. Thankfully, the PSNI were very co-operative with the two individuals involved in this case in Donegal and have been in contact with them many times. This has not been the case with our local gardaí.

These have been trying times for the Garda Síochána in Donegal. Morale among the gardaí there is at an all-time low and the current Minister will have to do something about it. He has not been in Donegal too often in recent years, but I invite him to come to Donegal and see at first hand the problems that exist. I want to see something done about criminality in Donegal. I want to see resources and morale sorted out in the force in Donegal.

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