Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Crime is an incredibly serious issue that many of us are dealing with at the minute. Yesterday in my own constituency, 20 pipe bombs were found in a ditch behind a property in Ardee. This happened after great work by An Garda Síochána in relation to a significant drugs find. It shows the reality on the ground, particularly when combined with an incident last Friday in Ardee in the early hours of the morning between 4 a.m. and 4.40 a.m. Gardaí are looking for information because a garda on routine patrol was injured in a hit-and-run incident. That case has moved on and our thoughts are with that garda. It shows the reality that gardaí are dealing with at the minute. I would also like to bring up the issue in relation to assaults and arson in north Louth.

My question relates to the community safety partnerships. A lot of us like the idea of gardaí, councillors and all of the necessary stakeholders being involved but there are issues relating to the membership and how the partnerships are going to operate. If action needs to be taken, it should be taken quickly in relation to how they are going to operate. That needs to happen as soon as possible. The problem is that the joint policing committees, as imperfect as they were, are not sitting in County Louth right now. We can all have ad hoc relationships with gardaí and others, but at the end of the day these are necessary forums. We need to have an interim solution with the JPCs and then make sure we have a finalised, operating, fit-for-purpose system in the form of community safety partnerships.

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