Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend my Labour Party colleagues for tabling a reflective and sensible Private Members' motion. They always come up with useful motions, but this is a particularly good one. I had no idea what the purple flag was until Senator Cáit Keane explained it was a concept pioneered in the United Kingdom. Councillor Johnny Flynn in Ennis has been promoting the idea. Mr. Flynn has a very strong sense of community and has been deeply embedded in his local community in County Clare for many years. As a former chief fire officer, he understands the importance of community activity. It is that aspect of the motion I wish to pick up on.

Neighbourhood Watch and community policing are very important. I do not want to see gardaí in stations, I want to see them circulating and having a presence in communities. I do not want to see them manning phones in Garda stations because we want to tick a box to show that stations are open. In reality, most people download whatever forms they need from the Internet and we do not need a necklace of Garda stations in every county such as we had 50 years ago. Society has moved on. The vast majority - what I call the silent middle ground who do not bang on every day about things that make common sense - agrees that the location of some Garda stations did not make sense. I speak from direct experience. My parish lost a Garda station in the last round of cutbacks. It did not make sense to have a station located in Lahinch, two miles from the district headquarters in Ennistymon. It was lunacy to require it to be manned for so many hours a day. There was a Garda station in Inagh, five miles from Ennistymon, notwithstanding that there was another Garda station in Ennis, also five miles away. It was a waste of resources. People want sensible decisions to be made which, though they appear on the surface to be tough, are the right ones. The Government has a mandate to do that. I acknowledge that the Government is making tough decisions. To be fair to our colleagues in Fianna Fáil, I point out that its Members are acknowledging the benefits of the motion. We are trying to create a collaborative conversation on the practical steps communities can take to make society safer and to make people feel safe.

Many gardaí retired last February. They are very active people who want to make a contribution. I suggest to the Minister that we establish a revitalised community alert and neighbourhood watch programme to be led by retired gardaí who have knowledge of their local communities. They have intelligence and wherewithal gathered over their years in the Garda and would be only too delighted to play their part voluntarily to assist the community. I know several retired gardaí in County Clare who are deeply embedded in voluntary community work in the areas of housing, GAA and other important endeavours. If the call was made to these people to roll up their sleeves and assist the community to develop an effective community alert system, it could be done.

People may not like to hear the words "smart policing" but there are hundreds of thousands of smart phones in this country. There are iPads, there is Facebook and other social media and for all its woes this does bring huge benefits. I know of several communities in which there is a text message system in operation such that if a strange car is seen a text alert goes out to a group of people. There are many technological initiatives of which we can take advantage.

I presume I have approximately two more minutes to speak.