Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am also a rural Deputy from a rural area and I am aware of the impact of the closure of Garda stations. The effect of the near withdrawal of gardaí from rural areas is very much being felt.

When canvassing in the general election, if one went after 7 p.m. in the evening to many houses on boreens in rural areas, many people, particularly the elderly, were afraid to answer the door because they were very conscious of people going around the area and robberies taking place. It brought home to many of us the effect all of that has on entire communities and that people are afraid in their own homes. The farming community is very much in fear of people stealing machinery, tractors and vans and taking tools and other things from farmyards. There is a lot of such activity in rural areas across the country.

Burglaries are happening in rural areas across the country also. My house was burgled. When people break into a house in the middle of the day, they look for cash and also gold. The reason they look for gold and jewellery is that there are many shops around the country buying gold. The issue must be addressed. A person can walk in with what they have taken from somebody’s house and get cash for it immediately. The Government that will be formed in the coming days, perhaps tomorrow, must make an effort to regulate that industry. If a person goes into a gold shop offering jewellery for sale, first, the transaction should be recorded. Photographs should be taken of the item that is being offered for sale and identification should be produced which should also be photocopied. If a garda is carrying out an investigation into a theft, he or she can at least find out what is going on. In many cases when a person steals gold from a shop, nobody will buy a ring or piece of jewellery from that person.

They want to get quick and easy cash for it and this is an outlet for so doing. Were that outlet to be closed off, it would help greatly in trying to resolve that issue for many people across rural Ireland where houses are being robbed for their gold.

Another development that reflects this point is the emergence of the text alert system, which is in place in my local area. Communities have been obliged to come together almost to replicate what the Garda should be doing because of that withdrawal of service. It is not because people in the community believe they are doing something out of the generosity or goodness of their heart; it is because they feel under threat and this threat has forced them into a position in which they have set up text alert schemes, community watches and so on. In Swanlinbar, a rural village beside where I live on the border of County Fermanagh and west County Cavan, a system has been set in place whereby people in the community are patrolling at night. They are driving around to make sure no one will be robbed or what is going on if anyone strange is in the area. This is a terrible reflection of the current position and how communities feel under such threat.

Essentially, for a society to operate properly it must ensure it protects its citizens. If one goes back 2,000 years and more to when The Republic was written, it mentioned three elements. One was a health system, the second was a justice system and I forget what was the third one but a justice system was one of the main elements, that is, a system of justice is necessary in order that people feel safe and part of their society. If, as has happened for many rural communities, gardaí are withdrawn, such communities feel vulnerable and left out of society. There has been much talk in recent days in respect of the formation of the Government about water charges but for the vast majority of people, the protests about water were about everything else. They were about the closure of Garda stations, the withdrawal of services and what people perceived to be an arrogance on the part of Government in which ordinary people were not being cared for and no one cared about them. The lesson to come from this is there must be a new emphasis to ensure things happen to protect people in rural communities.

I will dwell briefly on an issue in small and regional towns, in which drug abuse is becoming increasingly prevalent. I spoke to people recently in what was a quite rural part of County Leitrim in which a number of young people who had been smoking heroin were seeking help. This is a symbol of the direction in which things are going and unfortunately, funding has been withdrawn for drug task forces in many areas. While drugs and drug abuse are criminal issues, this is also both a social issue and a major health issue. In many of these cases, when people seek help, the Health Service Executive does not provide the requisite level of assistance. Moreover, there is a stigma attached to it. There are major problems nationwide with alcoholism but someone who presents with an alcohol problem receives more sympathy to a certain degree. However, a young person who presents with a drug problem is not perceived in the same way and a much greater stigma is attached to it. This must change and Members must ensure resources are in place to deal with it. As for the social impact in this regard, the withdrawal of funding from community employment schemes and the various social services that had been put in place, many of which were voluntary community organisations that were providing the services, has left a large vacancy in many areas. When that happens, the young people in question believe they have nowhere to go, have no one to help them and, again, feel left out and left aside. This is the essence of the problem and to revert to the issue of the water protests, while they were about water they also were about many other matters and a central part of this was the issue of people not being cared for. Ultimately that is what this debate and all debates in this Chamber are about, namely, the need to ensure we have a Government and a society that care for all the people.

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