Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Justice for taking this Commencement matter this morning. We are here to talk about antisocial behaviour and an increase in knife crime in urban communities. I wish to pay my respects to the family of Aaron Keating in Ongar. Tragically, he was a victim of knife crime last week. There are no excuses for the taking of a life in these circumstances. The impact of an assault of this nature on a community is enormous and brings the concerns about public safety in communities and community safety to the fore. It is justified and necessary for us to do everything we can to protect people from something like this happening again, so I hope we can have a frank and honest conversation about that this morning.

I know the Minister knows better than anybody else the impact of the closure of Templemore on Garda recruitment and that she is investing in a high-profile campaign to recruit 1,000 gardaí with a rolling intake but Garda visibility is the number one concern people have following this incident. Community gardaí are prioritising incidents and call outs in communities and, therefore, they have less time for a steady Garda presence on our main streets and in areas of footfall. I thank them for the job they do.

I looked at the Garda report for Blanchardstown in May that covered 2022. It stated that numbers for possession of an offensive weapon are down 53% with 27 takes versus 57. The detection rate in searches remains high at 67% but I wonder if An Garda Síochána has the same time for this type of intervention post-Covid. Having spoken to the superintendent in our district yesterday, it seems public order offences and assaults have decreased in Ongar recently but I know people see drug dealing in the village, the damage caused by antisocial behaviour and large numbers of teenagers hanging around the area, although this does not always mean they are up to no good.

The Parliamentary Budget Office tells us that we have 291 gardaí for every 100,000 inhabitants. When you look across Europe, you can see that this would not be top of the list. When we look at areas like Ongar, where there has been such an increase in housing developments, which is a good thing, people are not seeing a comparable increase in Garda numbers and, therefore, they feel that lack of visibility.

The issue of a new Garda station in Ongar is back on the agenda. I fully support this call but it depend on resources. There is no point in having a building if you do not have the increased resources to run it and be present in the community.

There is an active youth work culture and services in the area. There is a youth café on Thursday night in Phibblestown as well as programme for teenagers. We have a youth diversion project and we have seen the recent positive results of those projects with an 80% to 98% success rate that is lower if drugs are involved. I know from talking to youth workers in the area that they feel education and awareness is a big issue, that carrying knives is happening and that young people do not realise the implications and consequences. Targeted support works but we need to back up that with universal youth work in general.