Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I used to walk past them approvingly while the Senator would have cowered around the corner to see where they were. I say that in jest.

High visibility policing is a major factor in terms of people's sense of well-being. In rural Ireland in particular, if there were not to be the increase in numbers under this programme of recruitment, inevitably any Garda Commissioner under pressure to allocate resources to the points of greatest need must look at the burgeoning suburbs of the greater metropolitan areas around Dublin, which are now spreading out 30 and 40 miles and where villages are being transformed into towns. He would feel under significant pressure to bring gardaí to stations in these locations from sparsely populated rural areas. Therefore, if there is to be a programme of renewal and transformation of the Garda Síochána, it would be a desperate pity if it were dragged down by the view that reform would occur at the expense of rural policing. This is another reason we need additional gardaí.

I agree with Senator Ryan that there is sometimes a tendency to over-emphasise criminality in our society. I hope to publish in the near future the quarterly crime figures which arrived in my Department today. I am pleased to tell the House that, even on the basis of a superficial look at these statistics, the crime trend is down yet again, quarter on quarter, as it has been since we first started publishing quarterly figures at the beginning of 2003. However, there has been a constant increase in the number of certain reported crimes, such as sexual crimes. I do not know whether the highly visible presence of gardaí will ever have a significant effect on sexual assaults, many of which are committed in areas where gardaí would not be present to stop them. Since the introduction of PULSE, which resulted in a very significant increase in the number of recorded crimes, there has been a downward trend, even though the figures are reported quarterly.

It is a myth that crime can be tackled by the Garda alone. The causes of criminality are complex and the exact number of causes is the subject of debate. However, marginalisation, exclusion, deprivation, the mentalities of having nothing to lose and nothing to do, poor parenting skills, abdication of responsibility by parents, both rich and poor, increased access to alcohol in respect of some patterns of crime and increased access to motor vehicles in respect of others all play their part.

However, it is not a middle class or right-wing concern that crime should be addressed by a society. We must remember that it is those who are at the lowest end of the socio-economic ladder who suffer most from crime, as Senator Mansergh stated. I do not just believe this proposition but I know it. Shortly after my marriage I went to live in a place which, to use Sir Humphrey's great phrase, involved a courageous decision because it was very close to a hotspot of juvenile crime. I saw for myself the serious effect on a settled elderly community of living in an area where criminality was an expected part of life.