Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom míle buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta O'Reilly as ucht an t-am seo a roinnt liom. I attended a Save our Community public meeting in Trim on Tuesday night. Some 500 people gathered to discuss the difficulties they were having with regard to crime. There was a palpable sense of fear right through the room. There have been many references to fear throughout this debate. Elderly people at the meeting were unwilling to mention where they live because they were afraid that the people who were at home that night would be in trouble. People spoke about being robbed on multiple occasions. People said that when they returned home to find someone robbing their houses, they were attacked. One individual said that a criminal who drove at his wife, was injured in the incident and was subsequently apprehended is now suing the family in question on foot of the injury he received. The perpetrator of this crime has indicated that he is suing the family because he was scarred from the injury he received while committing this crime.

There was a very strong sense at the meeting in Trim that the laws of the State are in favour of the criminals and against law-abiding citizens. A strong view was expressed that policing cutbacks have made an enormous difference. I was really proud to see that three gardaí got up and spoke at the meeting. They said they did not have the resources to deliver the service properly. The strength of the force has fallen from 15,000 to 13,000. The Garda Representative Association and the other representative groups will confirm that the current number of gardaí is below the threshold at which the Garda can do its job properly. The Cavan-Monaghan Garda division has lost 22% of its front-line gardaí. Some 100 gardaí are gone out of the system in that area.

I do not doubt that crime levels have increased. A great deal of crime is happening but not being reported. A report that was published some time ago suggested that up to 5,000 crimes are not being reported to the Garda because the victims of crime are worried that reporting those crimes will have an adverse effect on their insurance premiums and so on. A Government Deputy said a while ago that there was no correlation between Garda stations and crime levels. That must be nonsense. If there was no such correlation, we would not have put Garda stations there in the first instance. Around €500,000 was saved when 139 Garda stations were closed. That equates to approximately €4,000 per Garda station. I appeal to the Government to recognise that €4,000 per Garda station on an annual basis is a small saving by comparison with the cost to those who live in the local communities.

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