Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

A small level of funding will be available to support the work of committees generally but it will be a matter for each local authority to find the resources, although not much should be required for this. In answer to the question on whether I spoke to the Garda Commissioner, he was at the joint launch of the initiative. The Garda Commissioner and the Garda Síochána believe this is a tremendous initiative as do I. Having served on a local authority between 1979 to 1991 I know a major problem with regard to crime in the area was that we did not have interaction between ourselves and the local superintendent. Now, we will have this interaction throughout the country and many of myths about who is at fault for crime will be dealt with. Genuine local problems can be dealt with by these committees.

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