Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who is in the House to take the four Commencement matters.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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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.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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On behalf of the Minister for Justice, I give assurance to the Senator that the Minister and the whole of Government are committed to the principle that everybody should feel safe and be safe in their community. I note the issues the Senator has raised, in particular about community safety in very remote rural locations in Longford and Roscommon.

The safety of people living and working in rural Ireland, including Roscommon, is a major priority for the Minister. The Government is committed, through the national development plan, to providing essential capital moneys to upgrade and modernise Garda stations. It is important to say that the Garda Commissioner is responsible for all decisions regarding the opening of new Garda stations or reopening stations. Works on the Garda estate are undertaken by the OPW in close co-operation with the Garda authorities. This includes identifying and progressing any new stations or refurbishing existing stations.

With regard to crime and safety, our approach to community safety is a whole-of-government one. Enhancing rural safety includes everything from having more visible gardaí in the community to providing safe public spaces and amenities. That is why we are bringing the relevant social service providers, including the Garda, together with the community in a collaborative manner by focusing on the concerns identified by the local community itself.

Three pilot local community safety partnerships, LCSPs, have been running since 2021, including one in Longford, and each has published a local community safety plan. A process to hire independent chairpersons for each LCSP is under way in most local authority areas, including in Roscommon. The Minister is hopeful that many communities will start to see LCSPs established in their areas over the coming weeks.The Senator raised the importance of a visible Garda presence to deter and detect crime and to help people feel safe in communities. Crimes such as theft and burglary cause enormous harm to hard-working members of rural communities and we are determined to fight this scourge.

The Senator may be interested to know in late September a Garda operation took place in the Mayo-Roscommon-Longford division to target suspects involved in rural burglaries. Suspects were formally identified during several weeks of investigation. Arrests were made by the Garda and a number of individuals were before brought before the courts.

It is also worth noting the remarkable progress made since Garda Operation Thor, which was specifically aimed at burglaries, was launched in 2015. Following it, there has been a 75% reduction in residential burglaries nationwide. That is a significant drop. Operation Thor actively targets organised crime gangs and repeat offenders through co-ordinated crime prevention and enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest burglary trends.

I also note that throughout 2023, the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, placed emphasis on targeting the criminal groups engaged in property crime, such as burglaries and robberies. A particular focus of CAB's activities centred upon rural crime and a number of its actions were in support of law enforcement in regional locations. I hope that is of some comfort to the Senator in terms of the response of An Garda Síochána. As I stated on behalf of the Minister for Justice, this is a whole-community and whole-of-government response to rural crime.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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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.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an Seanadóir.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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We must lock up those people and not let them out on bail if they have committed a second offence.

I have gone over time. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his patience.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I reiterate that the reopening of Garda stations or the deployment of gardaí is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner. I reiterate also that community safety is of the highest priority for the Minister. Recently, she was pleased to announce a €62 million investment in the Garda estate across the country as part of budget 2025.

Under the NDP the Government is committed to investing significant levels of capital funding into An Garda Síochána to deliver a Garda station modernisation and refurbishment programme involving strategic ICT and digitisation projects and to provide a modern, fit-for-purpose Garda fleet.

No Garda station closures took place in recent years. The Commissioner has repeatedly said there is no intention to close any stations. Currently, An Garda Síochána has more than 560 Garda stations throughout the country, which is high by international standards. The Government remains committed to giving the Commissioner the resources he needs. I will take back the issues Senator Murphy raises, specifically concerning crime in rural County Roscommon. The Minister and the Government are committed to addressing rural crime.