Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Well I did it in the meeting with the man and he would not answer my questions some years ago. He has had plenty of time to do that, and plenty of spin. He walked down the main thoroughfare of our capital city flanked by several other gardaí for a show of, contempt for the people actually, because they know themselves that people are terrified.

They are not my words but those of his own members, almost 99% of whom have no faith in him. What in God’s name is wrong? These are the people who defend us every day and mind us all over the country. The Minister's county is the same. In the last recruitment drive for Templemore, the Minister got nine in her constituency and we did not get éinne in Tipperary, not one. Carrick-on-Suir is a town that used to have 14 gardaí and four sergeants and it now has three gardaí and one sergeant. There is fear in the people. There are roving gangs going around tonight, lamping, spotting and terrorising people. People are in fear in their homes and we are here discussing a vanity project of the Minister and the Government colleague beside her.

The Irish people are fair and respectful, by and large, as Deputy Howlin pointed out. The same Commissioner has said more than once that he has enough legislation to deal with hate crime, and I can quote him on that. What are we at here, in the dying days, when the curtains are coming down on top of this Government, buíochas le Dia? Whenever the Government decides, it will allow the people to vote and they will give a fairly convincing verdict on its behaviour. There are laws for this and laws for that and no support for the ordinary people. What it did in Dundrum, Country Tipperary, in Roscrea and in many other areas was shocking. There are buildings without fire certification and unfortunate people from all over the world who came here looking for protection are in those unsafe buildings. We are told an audit will be done on safety. There was a fire certificate there ten years ago but there was a bad fire in the place since then. This is what the Government does with people. The double standards and hypocrisy are astonishing. There are double standards from Sinn Féin too but we have got used to that now. Every one of its Members who spoke on Second Stage spoke in favour of this Bill, saying it was years late and giving it glowing references. What has changed since?

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