Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that the challenge is ongoing with regard to criminal activity. We are also seeing increased levels of cyber crime, and gardaí are having to put more resources into dealing with that. A national conference was held on that today.

That is a significant threat, both in Ireland and internationally, and we have to increase the resources and provide the technical staff that are needed to deal with the issue. There is a number of other disturbing trends, as the Deputy said, in respect of sexual crime and the incidence of domestic violence, and we all have to be alert to interrupting that. Tomorrow I will launch a new awareness strategy with regard to domestic violence to ensure that people act when they see incidents of domestic violence.

In the context of Deputy Lahart's area, of the officers who have attested as members of An Garda Síochána, 40 and 45 have been assigned to the DMR south division and the DMR south-central division, respectively, and we have another 150 trainee gardaí coming out on Thursday next.

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