Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

It is an incremental approach. When the behavioural warnings are issued by the Garda, they tend to be successful and ultimately tend not to criminalise people and children in particular, who must come before the court if they are to get an ASBO. I agree with the Deputy in that the issue of public order or disorder is of grave concern to ordinary constituents. That is why the Garda has dramatically increased the number of community gardaí, and there are now approximately 1,000 dedicated community gardaí whose sole job is to work in the community and deal with people at a local level.

Whereas there may be incidents where gardaí do not turn up, it is not like it was many years ago. Our constituents used to say that they never saw a garda but now the position is reversed, with gardaí everywhere because the number of gardaí is at an all-time high at 14,716 today.

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