Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the confusion. I had intended to second the motion but I was not aware that the time of the debate was changed from a start time of 5 p.m. to 3.50 p.m. That was my mistake.

I welcome the Minister. I thank Senator Conway for bringing forward this motion, which I welcome. The prevention of crime is not the sole responsibility of the Garda. We all have a part to play. The joint policing committees have an important role to play. Since they were first established on a trial basis and a formal structure was put in place in 2008, they have made a significant difference. It is a very welcome change. It is not that long ago since I attended a meeting of residents in a Garda station when a Garda superintendent would not continue the meeting unless I left. We have come a long way from that. That was in regard to the area around University College Cork that I represented on Cork City Council at that time where there were quite a number of difficulties. On the one hand, there was a elderly population and, on the other, a large number of students descended on the area in late September and early October. We were trying to get gardaí, the college, students and residents to work together. It was interesting that the gardaí involved in the area did not feel that public representatives had a role in that process. The joint policing committees have brought about a change where everyone is involved and that is extremely important.

The Government gave an undertaking to review the process and that review was carried out. The process is now being changed and hopefully it will provide a better structure and we will learn from the experience of the past. It is important there is more direct involvement of community groups, the Community Alert scheme, the Neighbourhood Watch scheme, the community safety fora, the victim groups and youth organisations. The involvement of all of those groups is extremely important. The Community Alert scheme is effectively used with the involvement of community organisations in rural areas but it could be used far more effectively in urban areas as well.

I point to an area of concern, where the Community Alert scheme could be effectively used. There was a situation in my area, which is an urban one, and I am not sure if gardaí have looked into this, of people tuning into the radios used by taxi companies. I know of an incident of a person who ordered a taxi and within 20 minutes of leaving their house, they found someone was casing their property. That individual had listened into the radio of the taxi company and knew the taxi's pick-up address, where the person was going and that the house would be vacant. The Garda needs to examine the use of that type of system of notification of taxi call-outs and the monitoring of that system by individuals. As a result of the area being cased, I contacted the Garda and we found that the people who were casing that particular house has cased a number of other houses in the immediate area during the previous two or three weeks. As a result of sending out an alert in the local area, we identified the most recent house those people had moved on to case. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a Community Alert scheme in urban areas. We need to make sure, especially in areas where there are many retired people, that there is a proper structure in place to provide the necessary protection for them. House alarms provide one source of protection but we need to get the community to work together as well.

We still have a good deal of work to do because people can now communicate extremely quickly. It is important that communication systems are used for the protection of people. Feedback to the Garda at the fastest possible rate is important. People need to have the necessary contacts to enable them to use them both at a local level and back to the Garda station as the earliest possible time. A good deal of work has been done on this issue and these committees have worked very effectively since 2008. The reform of the structure is extremely welcome. It is a question of making sure that there is full implementation and full involvement of people across the community from public representatives to sports organisations to youth organisations to community groups. Everyone has a part to play. I look forward to working within the new structure with the changes that have been made and to continue to improve the back-up supports that the Garda require.