Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Graffiti is a problem across the country. Mr. Peter Horgan is a local election candidate in Cork. Yesterday he raised the issue of graffiti in Cork. It is what I call criminal damage done to householders. We are all too aware of it in our cities and town. Deputy Kehoe is Minister of State in the Department of the Taoiseach and I ask him to take one thing from the debate on my Commencement matter. I ask him to reconsider whether we can have a Government-led programme within the Department of the Taoiseach. I ask him to consult the relevant Departments to see whether a programme could be brought forward to alleviate the problem in every city and town. The programme that was in place was discontinued because of the financial crash, but there is now an opportunity for the State to show leadership to the local authorities in reducing the size of the problem. The only thing I ask the Minister of State is to reconsider and talk about the issue within his Department and with the Taoiseach to see if we could have even a small fund of, say, €5 million that would be matched by local government to deal with graffiti. I am not asking him to give me a "Yes" or a "No" answer; rather, I am asking him to reconsider the matter and consult the Taoiseach and revelevant Departments to see if we could take a step towards acknowledging the volunteers who try to clean up their local community. It would be a good day's work if he were to give me an undertaking that he will reconsider the matter to see whether central government could assist local government in tackling the scourge of graffiti.