Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Nothing is more important than this debate, short as it may be. Drogheda is a fabulous town of 40,000 citizens. Moneymore is one of the finest estates with which I have ever worked. It is a community of people and families who work together and who are fraught and distressed about what has been happening in their community. A small number of people are engaged in this activity. They are evil and have been targeting, in the most evil way, not only members of their own organisation. The fact that ordinary citizens could be killed, bombed, shot or attacked at any time is entirely unacceptable.

I very much welcome the response of the gardaí. They are on the streets. All garda leave has been cancelled in County Louth. Regrettably, what has been happening has also necessitated the armed reserve police being on the streets to protect and act in aid of the civil power.

What we need is the immediate tackling of these people by the gardaí. I and, I am sure, the Oireachtas and the Minister, will offer them all the support they can possibly get. There is a deficit in the number of police deployed in Drogheda. Drogheda is the same size as the town of Dundalk but while Drogheda has 107 policemen, deployed Dundalk has 159. I accept that the number of policemen deployed is a matter not for the Minister but for the Garda Commissioner. It is not acceptable there is this deficit in policing in Drogheda and it must be urgently addressed.

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