Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State very much. I understand that he is subbing here. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, knows our county very well. I know her personally and I know that she wants to ensure people in the county are safe, but in the short term we must consider manning the bridges across the River Shannon coming into County Roscommon. We had to do it in previous years when we had issues and we need to do it again. I urge the Minister of State to take that suggestion back to the Minister. It is something I intend to contact the Commissioner about as well.

We also need more gardaí on the ground. We must find a way to reopen some Garda stations as a point of contact, in particular for elderly people. People get distressed when they know the number of the local Garda station and then cannot get a response at the end of the phone. That is extremely worrying for them.

I know the Minister of State travels to the west quite a lot. He knows the national primary road, the N5. He has been in the village of Tulsk. We had a situation where those guys took over the N5 road at 4 a.m. and plundered a local business. There was also a situation in a little village, Castleplunket, where a lady – with her daughter and elderly mother – looked across at the family business being absolutely raided and broken down by four gangsters at 4 o'clock in the morning. She was fearful for her brother and his family who live next door to it. Those are real incidents.