Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a particularly important issue. I have chatted with the Minister of State privately on this. One of the challenges is that those of us who have gone out in Dublin over the years have never felt that unsafe until the past few years. Quite frankly, in parts of the city we are seeing gangs of feral youths that intimidate people. At times when seeing some of the behaviour, it is understandable why people are frightened and why they do not feel safe in our capital city. This is expressed by people who live here and equally by tourists and visitors to the area. No matter how many statistics we throw out to people, if somebody says he or she feels unsafe, we cannot convince him or her otherwise. Certainly we are hearing back from our own constituents and from others is about the fear on our streets. It is not just confined to the major cities. Increasingly in towns - and the Minister of State will be aware of this in Wexford as well - people at times feel unsafe because they do not see gardaí on the beat as much as they were.

I pay tribute to the chief superintendent for the Wicklow-Wexford division who has made a concerted effort to get more gardaí out on the beat but I want to raise the issue of the allocation of Garda resources and Garda numbers. Rosslare has expanded enormously in the past few years because of Brexit but this has placed strain on the Garda resources in the Wexford division. Gardaí from the south east have had to be allocated to Rosslare Harbour to provide extra policing. We need to look at the likes of our ports areas in the context of extra policing and, as we have seen most evidently over the past few days, to support those agencies, including the Coast Guard and so on, that have to prevent crime at sea.

I will give a comparison on the Garda numbers. Garda numbers generally around the country are insufficient. The Minister of State will be aware that in the Wexford division at the end of August, there were 338 gardaí and in the Wicklow Garda division, there 296 gardaí. The population of both Wexford and Wicklow in each case is bigger than Waterford or Cavan-Monaghan, yet Waterford has 380 gardaí and there are 375 gardaí stationed in Cavan-Monaghan. That is not to say that Waterford and Cavan-Monaghan do not need those gardaí, but in the allocation of Garda resources, it is very clear the Wexford- Wicklow division, which the Minister of State and I are both very familiar with, is not getting the necessary allocation of gardaí that it deserves. In the allocation of gardaí we need to have a greater balance.