Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has of course because if the community guards stand in people's kitchens and get to know the families and the people, and who is a bit dodgy in an area and garner other information like that, they will be able to pass it on. It is important to know where someone has a lot of cash, when people are wondering about how those people have that money and their means of getting it. That is very important, and goes back to basics and solving crime. Whether in the context of counterfeit notes or daylight bank robbery, it is important to have the community connection. Those guards will get the trust of the people. I am not calling those people who provide the information "informers", because that word has gone out with the Flood; they are civic-minded people telling about things going on that should not be going on. We must support them.

I salute the community gardaí, such as those under Sergeant Moloney in the Cahir district, namely, Garda Jenny Gough and Garda Noel Glavin. It is the same in Clonmel, and all over County Tipperary. It is a pity that in respect of visibility alone, all those cars are being taken back and these community policing units are again under pressure. We need them in the community. It is not possible for An Garda Síochána or any police force in the world to operate and combat crime, whether involving counterfeiting or violence against men or women or anything else, without the support of the public. That has been learned the world over. We need the support of the public and community gardaí are what we need to get that support. I refer to the old style of policing, involving going into people's houses, where people have the information, and supporting them. It is the old style of policing and it will come back in spadefuls.

It is very easy now for scammers with card payment and transactions, especially with those cards that can be just swiped and do not require a personal identification number. There are great opportunities for fraud in this area, and we must be able to deal with this type of activity. Small businesses are wide open to being plundered. Goodness knows, they are troubled enough and under enough pressure now without having all this technical fraud. We, therefore, need the CAB to be reinforced and all the units of An Garda Síochána to be able to deal with that type of crime. All gardaí must be re-educated in respect of this area as well, like people in any walk of life, my own included. We learn something every day, and it is a bad day when we do not learn something new.

These criminals not only can be ahead of us, but they normally are. They are international, and we saw actions in the regard yesterday in different countries against Irish criminals. These are widespread cartels, with expansive and expensive networks, and it is important that we reinforce this legislation. My question remains about why we are four years late with this, and how much more legislation is lined up. We had one Bill, I think it was last week, for which we were fined in this regard. Why are we so slow? We must also be ever careful that we also do not diminish our sovereignty. It is time that we wore two hats, I suppose. I refer to having the benefits of European membership, and it is important that they can nod us along to bring in this legislation. We should also, however, bring forward our own legislation to deal with these kinds of issues. It should be introduced, debated and legally scrutinised here and put in place.

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