John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to join in the expressions of sympathy to the Donohoe family and to the Garda force on this brutal murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe. I refer to the tributes paid to Garda Donohoe. The description of his participation and engagement with the local community, his activity outside of the hours of work, could be applied to almost every garda in every community throughout the country. They have arrived at this level of engagement with the local community arising from the community garda initiative. This has built up great confidence between the community and the Garda force. It has led to significant intelligence being made available to the Garda to aid in crime prevention. It has assisted families who were involved in crime to break that cycle and to bring young people back to a more constructive way of life. The initiative has also cracked down on drug use, on grow houses and on the devastation caused by drug abuse in communities up and down the country.

Reference was made earlier to burglary and that fact that it is probably more associated with urban centres. That was the view expressed by a Government Deputy. I disagree with that view. Burglary is a crime that plagues the country, whether in urban or rural areas. Local gardaí are needed to combat burglaries.

The debate has referred to what happened yesterday and last year and when Fianna Fáil were in government. We are told we have a brass neck now that we are in opposition to put down this motion. If the Minister is not going to listen to us, I ask him to listen to the former member on "Prime Time" last night and his description of the lack of funding for the force now which has caused it to be in a position where it cannot collect the type of intelligence it was able to collect at one time which led to the crackdown on crime. If the Minister is not prepared to listen to him, then he should listen to Fr. Buckley who described, in my opinion, the argument against the closure of these stations adequately and well. While he described his home place of Galway, that same description could fit neatly to most of the constituencies and locations we represent. There is fear in the homes of people who live alone. There is fear among those elderly people who live in either an urban or rural setting. Business people are living in fear. They are fearful when conducting business, making a lodgment, closing up late at night. The Minister by his action in closing these stations is adding a further substantial cost to those business people as they go about creating employment or sustaining employment. If the Minister is not going to listen to us, he should listen to all of the other people who served in that force. He should listen to the Fine Gael councillor on the "Six One News" tonight who laid it out clearly for the Minister and pleaded with him to stop now before it is too late. I know from the closures in Ballyragget, Johnstown and Inistioge in County Kilkenny that in that geographical localised area once those stations are closed there will be a huge problem for those local communities. There will be a huge disconnection between the force and those communities. That is not good because crime figures will climb if action is not taken or if the Minister continues with this programme of closures.

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