Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the importance of community-based support groups and voluntary organisations, which continue to be assisted by my Department in many endeavours. I am familiar with the report to which the Deputy refers, which was compiled by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association. I welcome the report and similar reports and look forward to giving all of them due consideration when they have been published or dispatched to me. The report to which the Deputy referred covers a period of 24 months beginning at the start of May 2014 and concluding at the end of May 2016, which includes a period of 17 months that predated the launch - in November 2015 - of the sustained drive against burglary and property crime being pursued by An Garda Síochána under Operation Thor .

I assure the Deputy that the Government will continue to make available to the Garda an appropriate level of resources to ensure that we continue to operate against a proliferation of rural crime and that the burglary figures continue to decline.

See this speech in context