Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan. It is my first time to address him as such in the Dáil. I congratulate him on his post. From what some of his colleagues have said, he will be a breath of fresh air. I hope that comment is justified, but it gives us some indication of what they thought of their colleague, the previous Minister. I said nothing.

Crime is a serious matter. When one turns on the radio to hear of another shooting or a murder by whatever means, it is critical. Therefore, I welcome the opportunity to put some proposals to the Minister. I am sure they are not new, as I have already heard many of them commented on here earlier.

For instance, in Clones, a Border town that suffered as much as anywhere during the Troubles, there are still problems late at night. Unfortunately, the station is now closed except from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The area is serviced by Monaghan Garda Station which is 13 miles from Clones, and they have to police Scotstown and right around the Border. These are areas about which young gardaí in Monaghan simply do not have a clue. If these gardaí are called late at night there is a serious problem. I would ask the Minister to look at this situation. There are civilians available to man Garda stations and desks where valuable gardaí are sitting at present. There has been much talk in recent years of the civilianisation of these jobs and I ask the Minister to see if that can be done as a matter of urgency.

My party raised a number of times in the Dáil the idea of attachment of fines to earnings to ease the pressure on gardaí who must go out around the country or into the towns to collect fines, which is not a job that they should have to do. This would have two benefits. First, it would save the Garda money and time. Second, it would mean that those who cannot afford to pay their fines at once could pay through social welfare, through salary deduction, etc. Such a system seems logical. The credit union can stop money out of wages by agreement. Similarly, the VHI can stop its premium out of our salary, so why can simple things like this not be done?

I refer to two other outstanding matters in the short time available. Following the peace talks we had high hopes that the gangs involved in drugs, oil laundering, etc. would no longer operate, but that is not the case. It is important sufficient Garda resources are allocated to tackle people involved in this criminal activity.

Deputy Durkan referred to drugs being all over the place. I would have been less dramatic than he until I received a telephone call today from a person in a small village to say somebody had been arrested there and found with a considerable amount of drugs. I congratulate the Garda on its success, but it is frightening to think drugs are available only three miles away from my home in a small village.

This week we heard on local radio of an incident where the by-product from oil laundering was dumped on the Border. This practice is still ongoing. This activity underlines the need for a very close relationship between the Garda and the PSNI to ensure those involved are tackled once and for all. Such people are doing untold damage. First, Monaghan County Council has to hire a fire brigade to clean up the mess. Then the sludge has to be put on a lorry and brought to a safe place because it is an extremely dangerous product. Following this, it will eventually be sent to Germany at great expense to the taxpayer. Not only do we lose the tax revenue from the oil which is due to the State but we also incur other expenses in dealing with this illegal activity.

I wish the Minister well. I hope he can get the extra personnel on the ground. We can talk about statistics and numbers but unless people see gardaí on the ground and can leave home to go to their place of worship with the peace of mind that their homes will not be raided in their absence, we will not feel safe.

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