Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to highlight an aspect of the crime issue that was raised by Senator Darragh O'Brien. I have spoken previously about the theft of smart phones in Dublin. It has been reported that some 16,000 phones were robbed in this city in 2012. This is indicative of crime in general. It is easy for thieves to turn around the value of a phone for upwards of €100 within an hour. While this might seem trivial when compared to certain other cases, it seriously needs to be addressed. I welcome the investigations which are being undertaken by gardaí in relation to the issue in the city centre at the moment.

As other Senators noted, the case has a parallel in another dreadful case in County Clare where a man who was viewed as an easy target cycled for 30 miles to sign into a nursing home, despite being in perfectly good health. Clearly, there is a wider issue involved here. While figures show that crime levels are decreasing, which is welcome, I sometimes wonder how the figures are compiled. Anecdotally, crime does not appear to be declining. The Fine Gael Party has always been tough on crime but we are in a time of straitened State resources. I ask that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, carry out an audit to assess current Garda deployment and identify more innovative ways of deploying new gardaí to ensure citizens are safe.

I concur with Senator Moran's comments on the Central Remedial Clinic. We are all disgusted and we overdosed on outrage about developments related to the CRC last week. The bigger issue, however, is the damage being done to charities. I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Justice and Equality that a charities regulator will be appointed in the near future. We need to do some work to repair the damage to the charities sector.