Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister of State will agree, as we all would, that some of the recent high profile aggravated burglaries in rural Ireland have been particularly shocking. They were perpetrated against elderly citizens, old people living alone in their twilight years. There was one in Wicklow recently and a particularly vicious one in Pallasgreen in County Limerick, where elderly people were tied up, beaten up and held captive in their own homes. Operation Fiacla is a good initiative and I am anxious to elicit what types of results it is yielding.

I take this opportunity to refer to the agenda of the closure of rural Garda stations. The issue is about having a police presence in rural Ireland. If the Minister and the Government are to continue to pursue the agenda of closing rural Garda stations, the effectiveness of these types of operations will be diluted. While recognising that many rural Garda stations operate on a very limited part-time basis, they provide a police presence and such a presence is a deterrent. We are aware of the mobile nature of the gangs who commit these types of crimes. For example, in the case of many of the crimes that were carried out in County Limerick, the offenders came up to the county from the Minister of State's city of Cork. That was the intelligence the Garda Síochána could reveal to us.

Another issue is the non-replacement of Garda vehicles. These people are mobile, yet we have a crazy situation where the Garda Síochána are not equipped with the necessary vehicles to combat this crime. I have said on record that in some parts of Ireland the Garda is unfortunately operating like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme. The Garda is not resourced adequately to deal with these people who are sophisticated and mobile. The upholding of law and crime prevention is the second most important issue after the economy and jobs. We would probably all agree on that point.

Can the Minister of State advise how many arrests have been made under Operation Fiacla to date if she has that information available? Did she say there is a dedicated budget for this? How much is that budget and how long is it envisaged it will remain in place? Will it roll over into next year and the following year? Can some of that budget be expended on capital items such as vehicle replacement?

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