Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to take control of the situation and for us all, irrespective of our political allegiance, to leave the political point scoring on the Garda Síochána and the Garda Commissioner outside the door. Many people, all over the country and particularly in rural areas, are the victims of our shenanigans. They are the elderly, who are living vulnerably in rural Ireland. I have with me the local paper from my home area which reports that there has been a litany of crime in the past two weeks. In particular, it relates to elderly people in rural areas. We have all heard of the high profile case in Tipperary last week, but it is the same all over the country. The reason for this is that the criminal element sees total disarray among the Garda Síochána from the top down by virtue of the media coverage from these two Houses. In essence, we are the initiators of much of this and it is about time that the Minister for Justice and Equality, the person who can grasp the nettle, takes control of the situation and sorts it out once and for all in the interest of the most vulnerable in society.