Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to discuss a very emotive issue. I thank him for a very frank and forthright submission. Crime is an issue with which we all have to deal and on which we must be united to defeat. There is one flaw in the programme for Government which states:

We will complete the current expansion of the Garda Síochána and increase recruitment so that the numbers will increase by a further 2,000. These additional gardaí will be targeted at those areas of greatest need, especially areas experiencing a significant drugs problem and a large number of public order offences.

Senator Minihan made a useful suggestion to introduce volunteer reserve gardaí or policemen and women. However, it cannot work. As anybody who runs a football club or any voluntary organisation knows, people will not work voluntarily any more; they want to be paid. Citizens pay their taxes and expect a reasonable Garda force in return and it should be increased by 2,000 members. It occurs to me that we would replace the B Specials with the PD specials, which is nonsense.

Crime is local. I grew up in a town in the west much like thousands of other small towns. The gardaí then were involved in local soccer, GAA and boxing clubs – it was community policing before the phrase was coined. My worry was that if I misbehaved, I would get a size 12 from the local Garda sergeant and if not—