Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply but it is simply not acceptable that we are standing still. As I have put to the Commissioner before, officers, be they male or female, are put in danger if they are sent out on their own in a patrol car to all kinds of incidents. We saw what happened to Garda John Walsh after he had to go out on his own. Please God, he will recover. It is terrible that gardaí must go up and down boreens in the middle of the night on their own. Some days, there are no gardaí available in Cahir or Cashel stations. These are tourist towns, never mind all the villages in the hinterland. It is just not acceptable and not fair to the Garda members who are in the region doing their best.

The lack of cover in Carrick-on-Suir would be laughable if it were not so serious. There are three gardaí in a town that used to have 18. There were four sergeants but I think there is one now. Clonmel station is trying to cover this.

We see what happens at peaceful protests, such as the one in Dundrum when the IPAS residents were being moved in. I was there myself and we saw what happened. We had the siege of Dundrum. Two hundred gardaí, from the riot squad and dog squad to the equine unit and God knows what, arrived. Consider the cost of this. At the same time, a house was burgled in Cullen, about 15 miles away, and no garda could be got. That is the norm. Therefore, there is overkill when it suits the Government. What is happening is not acceptable. It is not safe to have gardaí on their own covering the kind of area in question.

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