Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue along similar lines. It is not specifically about Garda numbers but about rural crime. To be honest, I had no intention of raising the issue this morning until, about half an hour ago, I received a telephone call from a gentleman who lives within four miles of me at home. He and his wife are both in their 70s. They had a family SME all of their lives and employed at least four to five people, for whom they paid taxes, with their own. Last Friday evening, when they came home having been shopping, they discovered that their business and house had been totally ransacked. This morning the man in question was in tears on the telephone. The couple are now prisoners in their own house. He cannot leave the house unless his wife goes with him and she will not stay on her own. As he said, he is a prisoner in his own house having contributed to society for a lifetime. He also said the lack of policing in rural Ireland was the cause of the majority of the problems. Nobody is aware of how rampant crime is in rural areas and how vulnerable and targeted those in the age group in question feel when in their homes. They worked all their lives for them in order to have a little comfort in their retirement.

I do not know whether we would get all of the answers if the Minister was here. We are recruiting extra gardaí and investing extra resources, but it is a question of how the extra gardaí and resources are being deployed. There is no strategic policing code for rural areas, but there is a need for one, as opposed to a code for policing across the entire country. Policing in urban areas is completely different from policing in rural areas, but this is not recognised. Politicians on every side will say such a barracks was kept open. Barracks in our area were kept open and everybody was taking credit for it. There is a maximum of two gardaí on duty at any one time and they are covering an area that was once covered by three or four barracks, each of which used to have four to six gardaí. That is the root of the problem. The man who telephoned me was in tears and I practically was. I had no intention of raising this issue in the House, but the man's conversation moved me to do so. He is a genuine individual who is now, as he states, a prisoner in his own house. Society should be ashamed. We have to take some action to change it.