Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I read and heard about the very sad killing of Azzam, the young man in Dundrum. I join with everyone else in extending my sympathies to his family and friends. It is a shocking thing for a young man of that age to be stabbed in a public park and I call on anyone who has information about this terrible crime to pass it on to gardaí and the authorities. I heard his father say that he has trust in our justice system, in our police and in our courts, to ensure the perpetrators are found and prosecuted. It is our job to make sure that trust is not misplaced by putting all efforts into finding those who committed the crime and to make sure that they are prosecuted so that justice can be done.

I am very aware of the debate that is ongoing in the United Kingdom, and England in particular, around the rise of knife crime. I am not quite sure if knife crimes are as frequent here as they are in the UK but they certainly are occurring and they should be of concern to all of us.

Deputy McDonald asked some very detailed and good questions about the memo the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, brought to Cabinet today. I do not have it in front of me but it is quite detailed and a number of actions were agreed. The Minister will make an announcement on the matter today and will set out exactly what actions the Government is taking to respond to the issue of familicides. It follows on from the murder of Clodagh Hawe and her children, as well as the Chada family and other cases. The Minister has engaged with the Coll family and responded to some of the proposals they put forward, which we are keen to progress. Familicide is not as rare as we may think and every month this year so far, a woman has been killed by a relative. I hope the decisions made by Government today will help us to deal with it better and support families better than has been the case in the past. We also need to see how we can better support communities because the wider community is also very affected, as was the case in Ballyjamesduff. We want to see how we can learn from these cases and do better into the future.

Deputy Burton asked about the crime being experienced in the Blanchardstown area. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, visited the station recently and met with gardaí and staff to thank them for the work they are doing to tackle crime in the area. The deployment of Garda resources is, of course, a matter for the Garda Commissioner and should be so, rather than one for politicians, but the job of Government is to run the economy well and make sure we produce the resources that allow us to recruit more gardaí, more civilians to free up garda time and more investment in equipment such as IT and vehicles. That is happening, it has been happening for several years and it will continue into the future.

I am disappointed that Deputy Burton characterises the broadband project as one in which rich people get the contract. This is not about who gets the contract but about the 1.1 million people who do not currently have access to high-speed broadband, who come from all backgrounds and live in all parts of the country, including some parts of Dublin.

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