Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here but in a ten-paragraph reply there is was zilch mention of community policing on the streets of Galway and what is needed. He tells me he cannot comment on a live Garda investigation. I did not ask him to. I did not ask anyone in the Department of Justice to comment. I am bringing attention to the danger on the streets of Galway. I do not want to do that but I am obliged to do so. This is not about fireworks, although a serious assault occurred and others did relate to fireworks. These assaults have been going on for quite some time. I am bringing to the Minister of State's attention now, which I do not want to but I must, the fact this has been going a number of years and is getting worse. In my opinion, it intensified with the message from this Government to go out and drink and be merry. The streets and the public areas were taken over in a manner that was not compliant with the Barcelona Declaration, which we passed almost 20 years ago, guaranteeing universal access to all our residents regardless of ability, with the motto in mind, "good design enables, bad design disables". All that went by the board. That is part of the problem.

The second part of the problem is the failure to have proactive community policing. There is one sentence in the reply that tells me the "The Minister is assured by the Garda Commissioner that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources" etc. under review. The headline in the newspaper two weeks ago was that the superintendent or chief superintendent - I may have the title wrong - said he was never reluctant to ask for more resources but he had the use of two or three trainee gardaí at the time. Trainee gardaí are a wonderful asset but they have to be part of an overall manned and womanned police force that is given a message that this behaviour is simply intolerable, we will not accept it and we are with you on the ground, muintir na cathrach, chun stop a chur leis. That is not what is happening.

This reply is not acceptable. I do not blame the Minister of State but, really, at some stage somebody has to come in to the House, put replies like this aside and say this behaviour is unacceptable, this is what we are going to do about it, that they will engage with the Commissioner and chief superintendent in Galway, and they will see what plan is there to stop this so that we can all live in safety and all enjoy our city.

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