Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A lot has been said already on rural crime and I am not going to repeat points already made. There is an understanding that rural people are very vulnerable. I recently attended a number of meetings in relation to the text alert scheme. I must say that the text alert committees are doing great work, of that there is no question. They should be supported in every way possible. There was much discussion at those meetings about CCTV cameras and the fact that local groups can apply for funding for same. However, the funding available is €40,000 which is not sufficient to put these cameras up. This point was made very strongly at the meetings that I attended. These local groups are voluntary and do not have any way of raising substantial funds. They collect a few euro every year just to pay for the running costs of the text alert system. The €40,000 grant is not sufficient. A number of years ago funding was available for the provision of CCTV cameras in towns. The grant was in the region of €100,000 per town which went some way towards dealing with the issue. The running costs of these cameras is approximately €5,000 per annum, which is also beyond the capacity of these local voluntary groups.

My final point is on the people that are carrying out these robberies and in particular, non-national people. We had a case recently where people who were in the country for two days robbed an elderly person. Thankfully, due to CCTV cameras, they were apprehended and sentenced. When those two people get out of jail they should be on a boat out of this country. The same goes for many of those people who come in here, commit crime and murder or very serious crimes. They should be sent out of the country as soon as they get out of jail.

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