Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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53. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she is aware of the continued concern of the local community at the increased crime levels in Tallaght in Dublin 24; her views on the need to provide additional resources to An Garda Síochána to deal with this situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4543/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am of course very conscious of the impact of crime on communities and An Garda Síochána treat all incidents of crime extremely seriously. In this regard Gardai engage extensively with the community in Tallaght and elsewhere in a range of fora to take on board and respond to local community safety concerns.

It should be noted that the Recorded Crime Statistics published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for Quarter 3 of 2015 show some encouraging trends across a number of crime categories. In particular, the latest CSO figures show a notable decrease of 47.4% in the number of murders recorded as well as reductions in other important crime categories such as robbery and weapons offences which were down 9.1% and 7.3% respectively.

The Government is tackling crime in all areas of the country by investing heavily in policing resources. In particular, the Capital Plan 2016 - 2021 makes provision for the ongoing delivery of new Garda vehicles, as well as very significant investment in new technology and information systems for An Garda Síochána, amounting to an investment of €205m over the life of the Plan. In addition, the Government has ended the moratorium on Garda recruitment and Budget 2016 made provision for the recruitment of 600 new Gardaí this year bringing to 1,150 the number of new Gardaí who will have been recruited since the reopening of the Garda College in Templemore in September 2014.

Early operational feedback from the Garda authorities indicates that the investments in policing are paying off. For example since its launch on 2 November 2015, Operation Thor has made a significant impact on crime, in particular burglary, with an estimated decrease in burglary of 34% when compared to the same period the previous year (these figures will be subject to further analysis and verification by the CSO in due course, in advance of the publication of the full official crime figures for 2015). Operation Thor provides for intensive overt and covert patrols and maximises all available operational resources to prevent crime, disrupt criminal activity and apprehend criminals .

While the deployment of Garda resources in particular locations is a matter for local Garda management in the first instance, I am informed by the Garda authorities that the Tallaght Garda District is policed by regular uniformed units, community policing units as well as District Detective and District Drug Units. It is also supplemented by resources from Divisional units including the Divisional Traffic Unit and the Divisional Burglary Unit. I am confident that the greatly increased resources which the Government has made available will enable An Garda Síochána to make a significant impact on all forms of crime, to the benefit of communities in Tallaght, as elsewhere.