Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue of rural crime is real but this Government consistently plays down the problem, telling us the figures are actually going down rather than up. What is going down is the reporting of crime, not the crime rate itself. I commend my colleague for bringing this motion to the House. It has three key objectives. The first is to help gardaí. Two aspects of this are increasing Garda numbers and reopening stations. We need to do this. The second objective is helping communities to help themselves. This comes in the guise of increasing resources to produce CCTV footage, not by putting cameras everywhere but by putting them in key locations where gardaí can obtain information to help find criminals when they carry out crimes.

On the tracking of machinery and parts, we know farms, in particular, are being targeted because they have valuable machinery, plant, livestock and diesel. Sophisticated gangs are targeting farmyards.

We need to address the deficiencies in our legal system. With regard to bail laws, we need to tackle the re-offending by people who are on bail. It must not be allowed to happen. It is reasonable to bring in electronic monitoring to reduce re-offending in this regard.

If people who get legal aid and who are subsequently convicted come into money later, the State should be reimbursed. This is a reasonable suggestion that would be supported across this House. It would let people know that we take crime seriously and are not soft on criminals.

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