Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have the figures from the CSO. They are not manicured. There were 3,091 recorded burglaries in Tipperary over a four-year period. It is a terrifying statistic. Confirmation of the level of recorded burglaries for County Tipperary in the past four years is a damning indictment of Government crime prevention policy. For rural Ireland, it has been death by a 1,000 cuts until, at last, the Minister and Government have woken up to the fact that the sense of safety among rural dwellers is on the verge of total collapse. I salute Robert O'Shea and his colleagues in County Tipperary, who have been victims of robberies, and also busy people trying to run their businesses for the activity they have undertaken to create an awareness. It used to be a case of "The West's Awake". Now, we are trying to get the Government awake and keep it awake. The Minister is asleep at the wheel. I salute the 2,000 people who attended the public meeting in Thurles and the members of the media who came to cover it and brought an awakening in rural Ireland.

Behind each of these figures is a family or community that has been terrified or subjected to a serious invasion of their homes. Their homes are their castles. They are a stark and brutal indictment of the appalling failure of the policy that has been pursued both by the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, and the current Minister in terms of the refusal to respond with sufficient speed to requests to reallocate Garda personnel to rural Ireland. There are five new gardaí in Tipperary under the new allocation, while at least 25 have retired or are out sick. I salute these officers. I am a great supporter. The second community alert scheme in the country was established in 1986. Gardaí cannot police without the support of the people. The gardaí have their support, and will have it, but they need the tools of the trade and legislation to stop the revolving doors. Why did the Minister reject my Private Members’ Bill to regulate scrap and precious metal dealers? It was an honest effort by my staff and me to bring in some legislation.

A reply to a parliamentary question by the Minister’s Department stated that Tipperary received nine extra Garda cars between 2011 and 2015, increasing the total from 53 to 62. The robbers can pick up a BMW or a Mercedes anywhere and at any time. We have to lobby and beg. We had vans with no batteries, cars with no radios and flashlights with no batteries. When I raised this matter with the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, he said the gardaí should go and buy the lamps themselves. It was so bad, we hardly had lead for the pencils, while the Government was telling us how good and rosy it was, with the bounce in the economy and the falling unemployment figures. It was all a myth. Eventually, the Minister decided to act. In the Tipperary Garda division, there were 693 burglaries in 2012, 737 in 2011, 755 in 2013, 637 in 2014 and 269 up to June this year, a small drop, which I welcome. I salute the community alert groups and all the agencies and bodies that help.

The Government got a fine mandate. One fundamental responsibility of any Government is to protect its citizens. The Government has failed dismally and refuses to pass legislation. Some weeks ago, the Minister held a press conference on the plinth with the Garda Commissioner, whom I salute and wish well. I did not watch it, I heard enough on the radio. The Minister announced that she knew of 200 criminals and was going to catch them all in Operation Thor. If one were picking potatoes, one would not tell the people where one was going to hide the potatoes. In rural Ireland, one does not tell people one is coming after them. No police force in the world gives advance warning to the criminals that it is going after them.

The Minister should listen to the people, protect them in their homes and give the gardaí the necessary resources. They have the intelligence network and the community garda is the primary collector of this intelligence and support. We have one in my area, local Garda O'Halloran, and many other good gardaí, who are living, playing sports, working and socialising in the community, and getting the information and passing it on.

The Minister does not want that, however. She wants them to tell and announce. There is no police force in the world that would go out and tell people it is going to go after them. Police forces do not say "We know who you are and we are going to get you." They go out and get the criminals first.

I salute the gardaí in County Tipperary who apprehended the terrible terrorist gang that destroyed a family in the county. We all saw the members of the gang going away in prison vans. That is what the public wants to see. It wants to see these people brought to justice. They should be arrested and given a fair trial with a chance to defend themselves. Then they can go off in prison vans. That is the press conference we want to see. We do not want to see the Minister's sham of a show when she announces a fleet of squad cars. We got nine extra vehicles and five extra gardaí in the years I have mentioned.

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