Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the speed with which the Minister was able to come to the Seanad to discuss issues, albeit only to deal with statements, to which Senators never get answers. It is in stark contrast to the time that has been spent trying to get the Taoiseach to come to the House. It is good and correct to have the senior Minister in the Chamber. We are usually fobbed off with a junior Minister who has nothing to do with the brief that Senators wish to discuss. I hope I will be more successful in getting answers to my questions than in recent times in the Chamber. I imagine the term "statements" is something of a misnomer.

I thank the Minister for his clarification. The money was speedily and conveniently found, apparently down the back of the sofa. Why did the Garda assistant commissioner state that there was no money for overtime? As the Minister has said, the assistant commissioner is responsible for the management of overtime. Is there a fractious relationship with the Department? There is always an agenda at play, and one wonders what it is in this case, given the serious dysfunction that was uncovered and played out in the past week. There are reports that the overtime provision made in budget 2018 can kick in by next Monday and overtime will be reinstated. However, the force cannot eat into 2018 funds now because that will leave it in the same position at this time next year. If this happens every year, as Senator Conway has said but about which I am unclear, we need to change the date. It is borrowing from the future to pay for the present and that is unsustainable, poor financial management and putting a sticking plaster over the problem. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, yesterday insisted on €5.5 billion being paid back early to the IMF, stating that the Exchequer is in a healthy financial position, with €20 billion in cash and liquid assets. Surely, we could take a few million from that. The Dáil has approved an extra €42 million for overtime but that is largely to pay for the November overtime bill. It beggars belief that the Government has put money before the needs of the people, particularly those in Dublin. It is acknowledged that during the darker nights in the run-up to Christmas, with households stocking up for Santa and family gatherings, there is a greater risk of crime.The assistant Garda Commissioner stated at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts, PAC, last week that in my locality of Dublin South-Central, Ballyfermot and the inner city were a priority for extra police, not Stepaside. This seems to be another division between the Minister and the assistant Garda Commissioner. I am not sure what the agenda is but perhaps it is to do with the news we have been dealing with all week. I acknowledge that it is a priority to continue to police the violent destructive gangs and residents in Dublin South-Central are well used to armed checkpoints. We must ask, however, what protection is given to ordinary law abiding citizens from day to day crime.

I conducted a survey in Dublin South-Central and at the top of that survey was lack of gardaí. People there are at the mercy of drug gangs and increasingly dangerous and fatal anti-social behaviour. That stood out in each area. It does not make any sense that the Government did not allocate enough funding for the police to do their job at one of the busiest times in the year. It is not in the interest of public safety. I ask the Minister to respond urgently to the needs of the people of Dublin and the gardaí and to find extra money, which I believe he has done, very speedily in the past few hours, to lift the ban on overtime. The only solution is to provide gardaí. That is the only solution acceptable to Dublin and elected representatives throughout the country.

We need a proper budget to ensure this does not happen again. The definition of madness is to keep doing it again and again. Senator Conway has said it always happens at this time of year but it seems ludicrous that it has not been addressed.