James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague Deputy Flanagan for bringing the important issue of escalating gangland crime before the House.

As a representative of Longford-Westmeath, a constituency which is at the mercy of the "day tripper" gangs, who see the midlands as being just a short drive for a grab and run attack on the old and vulnerable, I would like highlight the Government's lack of provision for the safety and protection of the elderly in rural Ireland.

That aggravated burglary has risen dramatically is not a myth, it is very much a fact according to the latest CSO figures, which show a 51% increase in aggravated burglaries in the three months to the end of September 2009. If that percentage were to be updated today, it would be considerably higher. That such an increase in violent burglary has been accompanied by a cowardly and shameful targeting of vulnerable elderly people in their own homes is a double indictment of the failure of the Government to tackle rising crime rates and to provide the necessary security for the most vulnerable.

In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, an elderly couple were held hostage in a bathroom of their home in Clondra, County Longford last December during an aggravated burglary. The couple, aged 74 and 65, managed to escape and raise the alarm. The physical and emotional damage done to this couple is immense. Detectives described the attack as horrendous, leaving the couple bleeding heavily and severely traumatised and afraid to return to their home. This burglary is just one of a pattern of escalating rural crime and attacks on the elderly, which are shocking communities around the country, but which the Government chooses to ignore. Society has become more violent and crime-ridden on this Government's watch. Break-ins and violent incidences are now an everyday occurrence in rural Ireland.

What is the response of the Government? A savage cutback in the community support scheme for older people. The shameful reductions in this scheme, which allows vulnerable people to install important safeguards such as personal alarms and window locks, is placing the lives of such people at risk.

The community support scheme in Westmeath has been decimated, with the 2008 figure of €137,160 cut by €103,885 in 2009, leaving funding for the county at the miserable level of €33,275. Longford saw its already low 2008 funding of €26,687 slashed by €14,422 to a 2009 low level of €12, 264, leaving the elderly victims of a system that is rotten to the core. With a lack of community gardaí and restricted opening hours for rural Garda stations, it is essential that the Government empower the elderly and vulnerable to look after themselves, particularly those living alone. The main way to do this is to restore the funding for the community support scheme for older people.

The other obvious answer to a reduction in crime is an increased Garda presence: 24 hour Garda stations, more patrol cars, extra gardaí on the beat, an increase in the number of community gardaí and updated equipment. With a well-known lack of these essential crime deterrents, Dublin gangs are hitting rural Ireland, targeting the most vulnerable and creating a fabric of violence, with, it appears, the Government's complicity. Allied to the cutbacks in the community support scheme, the small number of community gardaí, who make up only 6% of the force, is a further indication of the lack of duty of care for the elderly by the Government.

There have been calls for mandatory sentencing in cases of aggravated burglary, in which elderly people are terrorised and assaulted in their own homes. It is also high time that the impression given to criminals that life is cheap is knocked on the head with a minimum sentence of 25 years set for gangland murder. It is more than time that the Minister considered these deterrents and put some fear into the criminal element-----

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