Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A great deal can be done. Similarly the media have a role to play, in particular the local media which I would consider to be the backbone of rural Ireland. In Clare there is a Garda report every Monday on our local radio station's flagship current affairs programme which is highly effective in helping to deal with crime. As a society we need to start thinking outside the box, realising that we do not have the resources we had five years ago and never will have and we need to use the human resource of our retired public servants, who love their communities and want to contribute to them. As a Government we have a responsibility to identify how we can channel that type of passion and enthusiasm not just into policing but into the other strands of community work.