Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Taoiseach that it is not only about zero tolerance for crime and criminality but also zero tolerance for poverty, exclusion and the scourge of addiction. On that point we agree. It is beyond explanation that we are still waiting for Fitzgibbon Street Garda station to be reopened when it is located in the area with the highest crime rate in the State. Frankly, it is beyond belief that, in June, the Government closed the community policing forum in an area with a crime rate five times higher than the average rate in the State. The Taoiseach may say he is pulling out all the stops and doing all he can, but people and families living in the area with the highest crime rate - five times the State average - see a Garda station in the heart of this area that is still closed. They know their community policing forum was closed down as recently as June.

Therefore, I want the Taoiseach to provide more concrete explanations and, more important, more important solutions. We need a date for the reopening of Fitzgibbon Street Garda station. We need to know that the community policing forum will be reopened. Anything short of that will, to the ears of the families of those living in the north inner city, sound very much like rhetoric and crocodile tears. It will add nothing to their sense of safety and security in their home area.

May I say, just before the Taoiseach responds, that-----

See this speech in context