John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that, but we are still short when one compares the numbers, for example, in Limerick city and county with this metropolitan region. The number of gardaí serving in Limerick city and county is almost twice that of those serving in Tallaght and Rathfarnham. I appreciate that there is a great deal of investment in cars, and certainly they are visible around the constituency, but the garda on the beat is still not visible. I think of two instances. In one, there was repeated anti-social behaviour two weeks ago in the vicinity of a community centre in Jobstown. Said behaviour is causing havoc and I have written to the Garda Commissioner in respect of it. People who contacted the Garda were informed that there was only one car available and that it was dealing with another crime. This is giving rise to much concern locally. I do not want to stigmatise Jobstown. In Rathfarnham, according to the figures I possess, burglaries are down but robberies from the person are up 57% year on year. The latter are on-street crimes and it is in respect of these that gardaí on the beat and a visible garda presence, including, potentially, that of members of the Garda Reserve, would make a considerable difference to communities.

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