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

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy David Stanton, and thank him for his presence but I would obviously have preferred the senior Minister to be here to respond. If the Minister of State can provide it, I am looking for some hard information and facts regarding recent assaults in the Rathfarnham, Knocklyon and Ballycullen areas of my constituency in Dublin South-West. The first assault took place in the early afternoon of 18 June in broad daylight in the Stocking Avenue area of Rathfarnham. The assault was on a woman who was out walking. The general area is a popular one with walkers as it provides a ready-made circuit from many neighbouring housing estates and it grants easy access to the Dublin Mountains as well.

It is incredibly rare that such an occurrence would take place, hence the reason for me raising it in the House as a Topical Issue. I made contact ten days ago with the Garda at Rathfarnham and the inspector there was very helpful. He assured me that additional community Garda patrols, along with plain clothes detective patrols, had been deployed in the area, and that the gardaí both at Rathfarnham and Tallaght, which is the district headquarters, were taking the issue very seriously. Given the pressure on Garda resources, that was very much appreciated by the local community. That said, contrary views were expressed on whether the presence actually manifested throughout the community. Some were aware of the increased Garda presence and were very much appreciative of it but others said there was no evidence of an increased Garda presence.

I am aware from contact with the inspector at Rathfarnham Garda station that the issue was given high priority. The Garda helicopter was involved in searching on the Monday night following the assault. As I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate, just the presence of the helicopter increases anxiety even though it is not uncommon to have it along the M50 corridor. Its presence heightened the fears of local people.

Social media is a very useful tool for communications between individuals and groups and there is a high usage of social media in the area by both residents' associations and individuals to alert each other to suspicious activity. That was very useful in 2015 and 2016 in particular when there was a spike in burglaries. Equally, social media can be a terrible rumour mill and it can sometimes be very difficult to separate fact from rumour, which is another reason for me to raise the issue.

Last weekend there was also an alleged incident in the grounds of the Pearse Museum at Rathfarnham, otherwise known as St. Enda's Park, again, within the jurisdiction of Rathfarnham Garda station. I have written to the superintendent in Tallaght and have contacted the inspector at Rathfarnham again as I am seeking some hard information on the number of attacks in the area; the Garda response; details regarding Garda numbers in the area and the resources being devoted to that; the Garda plan to address the issue and if the plan is meeting with success. In other words, do the Garda believe it is a question of one suspect or two and how many attacks have taken place or were reported to the Garda? I would welcome a response to those questions from the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton. Local people definitely want some answers to the questions because the occurrence is so unusual. I will refer to some other points in due course.

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