Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that, and there is general confidence that people will get a response in time, but that is shaken when incidents such as I have described happen. I am also aware that there has been an increase in muggings, particularly in the city centre after dark. A great many people out there, particularly women going home from work on these dark evenings, are very fearful and frightened and do not see gardaí standing on the street corner and do not see the patrols out as much as they would like to see them. That is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with.

The broader issue here is down to having more community gardaí on the beat and making sure that there is a quicker response time, that we have better detection, that we have better deterrents in place and that we have protection in place for people in their own homes. We also need to have protection for people travelling on public transport, which is another issue I have raised with the Minister before and which I keep hearing is one of the key problems people have when they are at a DART station, on the Luas or in places like that. They see people using and selling drugs. There is an aggressive atmosphere, and it is very fearsome for people. It is an area that really needs action.

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