Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

No, I do not agree with my colleague. I have spoken to the Garda Commissioner on many occasions with regard to this matter. I accept the Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, has particular constituency interests with regard to this issue. It is difficult, particularly the case in which he has been involved. I have been assured by the Garda Commissioner that extensive work continues with regard to these cases. I have asked the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, which is independent of the Garda Síochána, to examine whether a dedicated unit for missing persons should be established and whether a system similar to Amber Alert in the United States should be put in place. I am awaiting its response on that. Having spoken to the Garda Commissioner, I am very happy that he and his staff have devoted significant resources to the investigation of these issues.

It is interesting that in 2006, 6,811 people were reported to the Garda as being missing, of whom 109 are still untraced. In 2007, there was a significant increase in that there were 7,992 designated as missing, of whom 98 are missing to date. When a person is reported missing, the Garda has a unit that alerts all Garda stations. The Garda press office is very active in trying to feed information to the media. The Garda superintendent for the area involved is the person responsible for running the investigation and he must work with gardaí nationally, Interpol, Europol and the UK authorities, with whom they have many connections in respect of these issues. I very much concur with the Deputy and have spoken to the Garda Commissioner on this matter on a number of occasions.

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