Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I express my deep shock at the attack on a child in Finglas today. I understand the child is very ill and I wish them a speedy recovery.

It is clear our communities do not feel safe. They know there is a dearth of gardaí on our streets. I acknowledge the brilliant work gardaí are doing on the ground in Dublin West under extremely difficult circumstances, especially in the last couple of weeks and the last year when there have been a significant number of gangland attacks. I have highlighted the fact other areas, such as Limerick, for example, which have populations similar to Dublin West have significantly more gardaí and Garda stations. It also notable that Dublin West is continuing to grow at an exponential rate with thousands of new homes being built in Ongar, Castleknock, Clonsilla, Tyrellstown, the Phoenix Park and Ashtown. Anybody who goes to Dublin West will see there are hundreds of homes being built and thousands planned, yet we still have a massive gap in numbers.

I have two other issues to bring up. Every week we all call for the community to support the Garda. The essence of the support is also reciprocal, in that we need the Garda to support the community. The community safety projects are really important, but they need to be genuine and something that is collaborative between the communities so it is not just gardaí and the community but also the local authority, local youth services and all those who help deal with the core issues of crime in our communities, that is, poverty, disadvantage and all the issues we know about which create crime in the first place.

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