Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I am delighted to hear it but I occasionally believe some of what I read in the Sunday newspapers and that was one of the stories reported.

Ballyfermot Garda station has been downgraded to a sub-station and no longer has a superintendent. The number of gardaí is sadly lacking in my constituency. A constant complaint is the absence of gardaí on the streets. In fairness, those who are based there are doing their best and doing a good job but there are simply not enough of them.

There has been an explosion in the number of apartments in my constituency. While this is welcome from the point of view of housing, where is the infrastructure to support those apartments? It simply is not there. Management companies are a thorn in the side of the people who live in these apartments. There appears to be no legal redress in terms of their adequate management.

Deputy Enright spoke about schools and I support everything she said. It is not unusual in parts of my constituency for the headmaster to find himself or herself cleaning out the lavatories occasionally. There is an absence of resources in certain areas, while bureaucracy and red tape surround every detail of the facilities and services provided for schools. In fairness, the constituency has acquired some new sports halls, which is most welcome. Inchicore has been given a very nice community hall but, unfortunately, there is no funding to keep it open for the community. While we have the facility, we do not have the people to run it.

I must mention farming and support everything Deputy Naughten said. In recent days, labelling and the import of products that leave much to be desired in quality terms have been highlighted. Farmers here are required to put the highest standards in place and they face heavy sanctions if they do not. We have no problem, however, allowing the importation of products with no labelling, country of origin or idea what substantial transformation has taken place. It is fine to impose standards and strict conditions on products produced here but we allow consumers to eat products from areas where we have no record of their origin.

We are also putting pressure on the farming community to compete with inferior products. We have the worst record for the numbers of farms producing organically. There are no plans for agriculture and no progress or innovation, although there are lots of promises.

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