Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy well knows, it is nonsense for the purpose of rhetoric to suggest the Garda is not getting support. It has my full support and that of the Government. However, we must live in a world of reality, from which the Deputy is semi-detached. This year, the State requires to borrow €16 billion simply to maintain services. We entered into government under the shadow of an EU-IMF-ECB agreement that requires us to reduce public expenditure. We entered government under the shadow of an agreement that required us to reduce the number of members in the Garda force, in addition to a broad range of other reductions.

When we came into government, we had the largest number of members in the force in the history of the State. It was even greater than the number in the force during the Troubles. The number has been reduced from approximately 14,500 to 13,500 by retirements. The force is still substantially greater in number than it was during the course of the Troubles. There are substantially more policemen and policewomen in Ireland per head than in most other European countries. Therefore, it is not a question of bricks and mortar; it is about smart policing and doing what is necessary without delimiting the manner in which the Garda operates and its effectiveness.

The Deputy is peddling an untruth. Despite the closure of 39 Garda stations, there has been, according to the statistics up to the end of June 2012, a reduction in crime across every category in the State in the past 12 months, except in the area of burglary and in the area of theft, in respect of which there was a very small increase. In the area of burglary, Operation Fiacla is having a profound impact. Many of those who are responsible for the increase in burglaries over the past 18 months will find themselves, in the coming weeks and months, before the courts as a result of charges brought as a consequence of that operation.

I assure all rural communities that the Garda has the Government's full support. It will be resourced as best we can properly resource it in the difficult financial circumstances that exist in the State. I urge all rural communities to participate in Community Alert schemes and I ask citizens to provide their own security in their homes by way of burglar alarms and to be careful to ensure they do not do anything that sets them out as possible victims of some of the lawless individuals who are still intent on crime. Let the Deputy not peddle the myth that the Garda has anything but my absolute support and that of the Government in the work it is doing.

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