Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach sincerely for giving me the opportunity to bring this very important Commencement matter before the House today. I welcome the Minister of State. He always seems to be the go-to person and he is always here to answer my questions. I understand the Minister for Justice is not available this morning.

I thought long and hard before I brought this Commencement matter because, unfortunately, and I do not like saying it about my own county, in recent months there has been a crime spree. It is so bad that weekly, maybe twice weekly now, I receive representations from very worried people. There are worried people who are sometimes sitting up at night afraid to go asleep for fear of their house being targeted. There are worried people who have elderly members of the family living close by, maybe living on their own, and they are afraid they will be attacked. I do not want to put fear into anybody today but the reality of the situation is we have this crisis on the ground.

The Garda is excellent but its members are stretched to the limit. They are trying to cover here, there and everywhere and they simply cannot do it. Nowadays we have to understand that gardaí are handling so many other issues, including migration. There are myriad issues that gardaí have to tackle nowadays that they did not have to tackle in the past. Of course, the more legislation we have and the more issues that have to be dealt with legally puts more pressure on An Garda Síochána.

I am bringing up this issue in the context of the number of Garda stations that have closed over the years in Roscommon-Galway. For example, with regard to Tarmonbarry on the Longford-Roscommon border, in my own parish, we should never close a Garda station where there is a Shannon crossing. The reality of what is happening at the moment, if you watch the people who are caught and brought before the courts, is that many of them are coming from Dublin city, terrorising people throughout our region. It was a huge mistake to close Garda stations on the River Shannon. We also closed places like Ballyforan, Knockcroghery, Taghmaconnell and there are many more, including Shannonbridge on the Offaly-Roscommon border. All of those Garda stations have disappeared from the scene.

I understand and know the way we do policing nowadays has to change, and has changed. I understand that people might ask what the point is having a garda sitting in a Garda station, but I am very concerned about the point of contact for people. I had a case recently where people were distressed because of unusual behaviour by two guys in their area. They made ten calls to the Garda station in Boyle. They came from the general Strokestown area. Boyle is semi-closed, and Castlerea, which is quite a distance from the Strokestown area, is the policing headquarters for our locality. Eventually, they managed to get a garda in Castlerea, who was more than helpful and certainly got a patrol out there to look after people and check these guys out, but the point of contact in the local Garda station is still very important. Maybe this is where community police come in. If we could employ more community gardaí who could man a Garda station for a period time, that would be very important.

Is there any evidence of the Government or the Department making plans to open a new Garda station in County Roscommon or to reopen any of those that have been closed? We need a response. I have to do this for my people; the Minister of State understands that. I have to try and protect my people. When I see people really frightened, it troubles me.