Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For years to come we will reference the Covid-19 era and reflect on how it has changed so much in our everyday lives. An unexpected consequence of the lockdown is that for the first time in many years, we have been able to focus on the quality and number of garda personnel that should be on the ground and on patrol in rural Ireland. Trainees from Templemore were dispatched nationwide in an effort to support and supplement the policing effort in the face of the Covid-19 challenge. As part of that process, eight probationary officers were assigned to County Longford and for local policing, this was transformative. In Longford Garda station, for example, station management was able to move from a traditional six ten-hour shift roster to a much more effective and productive four 12-hour shift roster.

Our good friends in the media are fixated on gangland crime, often glorifying the protagonists. Yet, when the same excesses and savagery are visited on rural towns like Longford, we as a community are pilloried and scorned. As a town and county, Longford has been wracked by feuding over the past year, not unlike Drogheda in County Louth. Unlike Drogheda, however, we did not get the immediate and rapid response that the north east got in terms of resources and numbers of garda personnel. It is a sore point but we also did not get a high-profile visit from the senior echelons of Garda management at the time. Notwithstanding all those challenges, however, one of the hardest working Garda units in the country now has as many as 70 feuding-related court cases due to come before the local courts in County Longford. It is an outstanding achievement and piece of police work but that difficult process will, unfortunately, eat up Garda time and resources over the coming months. As a starting point, therefore, I urge the Minister to ensure the number of garda personnel in County Longford is augmented with eight new officers when the next batch of graduates from Templemore is allocated. We need to see a recruitment drive following on from that too.

Commentators tell us that Covid-19 is going to transform how and where we live. Obviously key issues will be transport and access to services but if one asks small business owners, small farmers or beleaguered pensioners in County Longford, they will tell one that the foremost issue is crime prevention and the need and desire to live at peace in their own community.

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