Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It will be hard to follow that. Senator O'Donnell has done well.

I would like to be associated with all the remarks made by my colleagues on Senator Jimmy Harte. I did not know him that well until I was elected to this House and he became a very good friend and a very good colleague to work with and I wish him all the best in the future. He is a big loss to this House.

The big thing in the media during summer 2015 was rural crime. I welcome the publication by the Minister for Justice and Equality later in 2015 of the Criminal Justice (Burglary of Dwellings) Bill 2015. There should be a debate in this House not only on this Bill but on rural life in general. I welcome the announcement today of €30 million for village and town renewals. This will spearhead a recovery in rural Ireland where much of rural Ireland has been left behind. The Criminal Justice Bill we are discussing deals with bail laws and people who commit crimes while on bail. I have raised this in the House before and the situation has to be looked at. People who received concurrent sentences knew that they faced a concurrent sentence, no matter how many crimes they committed. It is important that consecutive sentences are included in this Bill. We are the people who make the laws of this country but we are not the people who implement them. That is the gardaí. I welcome the reopening of Templemore where 250 guards passed out this year, with 500 more this year. I think the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Commissioner will make sure that these are allocated to rural Ireland to ensure rural crime will stop. There has been hypocrisy from Fianna Fáil on the closing of rural Garda stations. A garda in a rural Garda station will not stop rural crime in the middle of the night.