Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like many people in the Oireachtas, I have been out canvassing and campaigning on the north and south sides of Dublin in advance of the upcoming by-elections. In Dublin Mid-West, since campaigning for the by-elections began less than four weeks ago, a man was killed in horrific circumstances and the car in which he was found was blown up in a fireball. This happened in Lucan. The Taoiseach knows as well as I do what the situation is in Lucan. It is a lovely suburb and yet it is being visited by this kind of heinous crime.

A young man, only 22 years old, was shot down in cold blood on the north side of Dublin on Sunday night.

In addition to housing, the question I am asked about all the time is the issue of crime. Does the Government intend to do anything to give relief to communities that are beset by crime? In all of the policing documents, not least the current one, we are told that community policing will be at the heart of policing strategy to ensure that young people can walk around without fear of knife crime, being accosted in a public park, their phones being taken from them and, even worse, physical violence being done to them. We know that much of that is related to drugs and in particular to cocaine. Notwithstanding the lipservice to community policing, across Dublin, and I would say throughout the country, we do not have community policing in our streets and communities. We need that, particularly for young people, children, schoolgoers and students because they are the people who are living through this crime. It is very difficult for them not to be disturbed by the constant reports of really violent crime, most of which is inspired by the enormous profits to be made out of dealing in cocaine and other drugs. Has this group in the Taoiseach's Department walked the mean streets to see what is happening and the way communities are being put in fear in respect of crime or is it all about reports and relatively little action?

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