Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House. I thank her for coming in because as she well knows, this is a very important motion. It is important for us as a House to absolutely give her all our support to ensure we have effective policing on our streets and supports for our Garda Síochána.

There has been an increase in crime and antisocial behaviour throughout the country. We have seen the highlighted examples that make the media, but every week in local towns and areas, as we saw last week in Senator Cassells' area in Navan, we see serious crime and random attacks on people for doing absolutely nothing.

We have to pull back and ask what has gone wrong when there is no fear of policing. Society is to a certain degree not breaking down, but it is falling to a point that people are not afraid of getting in trouble with the gardaí or getting caught. It goes across all crimes whether it is sexual offences, and I know great work is being done there, attacks on the street or house burglaries. I know a lot is being done but we are at a point now where communities are feeling unsafe. People feel unsafe walking down the streets. I would not walk through many areas in Dublin city centre. I fear people would not walk around many towns and villages around the country because of antisocial behaviour.

I would love for all of us here to work together. It is for the Department of Justice to work with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to really advance the connections between community police officers and our youth workers. We need to ensure they are not just with juvenile liaison officers, JLOs, who are separate to that, but a softer thing; people who are there before they get in trouble to encourage them to trust and know the gardaí. People should have other activities in which to be getting involved because idle minds and idle hands cause trouble. If we are looking after our young people and supporting them towards other positive activities but not finding out why young and older people are completely disaffected by our law and not paying heed to fears of society, we have a problem and we need to examine the root causes.

I am very glad that we as a House will hopefully pass the motion today to support the recruitment and retention of further gardaí, which I know is a high priority of the Minister's. We have fantastic gardaí. In my local area we are constantly starved of gardaí. In the Cooley Peninsula in north Louth, we have one Garda car and not enough gardaí to cover the area. If someone is arrested in Carlingford on a night out that is it; that is the end of policing in the entire peninsula because they have to bring their prisoner to Dundalk. The chances of getting arrested are slim when there are no gardaí to make arrests and put people in prison. I am glad we have this opportunity to speak today because it is hugely important for the fabric of society that our communities feel safe.