Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I normally would not comment on the Garda or the PSNI. However, I am concerned about the recent theft of ATMs. Last week, as I was driving back from a function, I passed a garage on the Feeny Road in Dungiven from which another ATM had been stolen. This is the eighth theft of an ATM in Northern Ireland and there have been many more in Cavan and Monaghan. What is happening? Do the banks put tracker devices on these ATMs? The robberies are a significant inconvenience to staff and customers, as well as putting fear into communities. I cannot understand how a digger can be brought up a street in a small village on a Saturday night, rip apart a cash machine in a garage and nobody seems to know anything about it. I am not a detective. However, in this day and age, do these cash machines not have tracking devices attached to them? As Bertie Ahern rightly stated, it is not the boy scouts who are doing this. It is believed that dissident republicans are responsible. This is a worrying trend. If it were to happen in every town and village, there would be no cash machines left at all. More worrying, these robberies are funding an organisation which wants to bring terror and mayhem to this country once more.While I have huge respect for the law enforcement services on either side of the Border, I am concerned that nobody seems to be getting to the bottom of this crime that people seem to be having a laugh at now. It is certainly not a laughing matter.