Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Rural crime is definitely increasing regardless of statistics. The people on the ground will tell one that. Hundreds of people have attended meetings throughout the constituency of Offaly. We have had meetings in Cloghan and Banagher and there was a meeting last night in Coolderry attended by over 200 people in solidarity with Richie McKelvey, the farmer who was savagely attacked. This is spiralling out of control. We need resources. People are living in terror. There are reports of farmers bringing firearms into their bedrooms at night in order to protect themselves. There will be an escalation of this. We need more gardaí on the ground. We do not need to hear about the reopening of Templemore. We want to see the results of that. We want to see more gardaí patrolling and protecting rural communities.

We also want to see part-time stations turned into full-time stations. One example is Edenderry, a big town in north Offaly with a growing population. The Garda station is open on a part-time basis, which is a disgrace because we are seeing increasing crime in that town. It involves rural crime and crime throughout our towns and villages. We need to tackle it head on and we need our Garda stations to be reopened but we also need a strong Garda presence on the ground.

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