Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will not oppose the Order of Business. Can a debate be organised on the situation developing in Northern Ireland? I acknowledge there was a debate in recent times but the revelations yesterday north of the Border in a number of reports and further revelations on this side of the Border are concerning. Everybody is committed to the peace process with 98% of the people voting for it. However, there have been allegations over the past number of years about internal police forces and procedures whereby child abusers were diverted to other locations. This issue was raised by Maíria Cahill, a candidate in the forthcoming Seanad by-election, which is concerning. When we hear a claim that an army council directs the operations of a democratic political party, without prejudice to anybody in that party, it is one that requires an explanation and a debate which I am sure, as a political party, it would welcome in its own interest. This morning's contribution by Deputy Mac Lochlainn on Newstalk in which he described these reports as "nonsense" is not helpful. A prerequisite to the talks in the North, which we all wish well, should be that Sinn Féin, the UUP and the DUP accept and welcome the report and commit to addressing issues raised in it.Again without prejudice to anybody, that is the kind of positive and direct approach that needs to be seen rather than a pattern of denial which frankly, without prejudice, adds nothing but suspicion to anybody who is involved in democracy, from whatever party and no party.

I would again like to raise the issue of rural crime. I am sure that all Members at different times, certainly those based in rural and regional communities, have raised it. I believe that one reaps what one sows. The facts are the Government has closed 139 Garda stations and the latest recruitment drive which produced 200 gardaí nationally has resulted in none of them being deployed to Sligo and Leitrim and only five to Donegal. I refer to the north west region, which is where I live. This morning a supermarket and pub were the subject of a robbery. The town has no Garda station and the nearest Garda station is located 30 miles away. In such situations it is difficult for gardaí to reach a crime scene on time and that is why I say that the Government has reaped what it sowed.

Apart from the Government decimating rural Ireland through its closure of community services such as Garda stations, locations like Dromore West in County Sligo, which is where this latest robbery took place, have now become targets for sophisticated criminal gangs. This morning's robbery was carried out by a gang of five people who used heavy machinery. The robbers knew what they were doing, seamlessly carried out the crime and did not care about alarms going off. Sadly, because of under resourced Garda stations and a lack of people on the ground these criminals have not yet been apprehended. We hope that they will and wish the Garda well in that regard. I would like the House to debate rural crime and work out what can tangibly be done to restore normality to rural communities throughout the country so that all of the people, including businesspeople and the elderly, can feel safe in their homes or business by having a visible presence of gardaí in the shape of Garda stations and personnel.