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

I have got the figures. The metropolitan regions that concern me include Dublin southern and Dublin western. No anti-social behaviour orders were given out in those regions in 2017 or 2018.

When the Minister was the Opposition spokesperson for justice, he criticised the ASBO system as being too cumbersome to be effective. At the time, he commented on how the system had spectacularly underperformed. What has the Minister done to address this?

I have only received the figures in the past minute. In some of the regions the level of ASBO warnings has been spectacularly declining. Does the Minister believe the anti-social behaviour order mechanism has been a failure?

11 o’clock

I am aware from my own constituency that community gardaí are the key to addressing anti-social behaviour. In 2010, there were almost 1,200 community gardaí in the State. Last year, there were 691. Given that the Garda Síochána and Deputy Flanagan, as Minister for Justice and Equality, have, as he stated, unprecedented resources to allocate to the force this year, can he make a statement to reassure people in different constituencies that every effort will be made in respect of the anti-social behaviour order, which is a significant mechanism available to the Garda Síochána at community level, to significantly improve the quality of life of law-abiding citizens, who account for 99% of the people and whose lives are seriously discomfited by anti-social behaviour?

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