asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware that the average increase in crime outside the Dublin division was 17 per cent and if he is still going to pursue his present policy of closing rural Garda stations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rural Garda Stations.
88.
As the question itself recognises, the 17 per cent increase in crime relates to the entire State outside Dublin, including, of course, cities and towns. The closing of stations, on the other hand, has been restricted to some rural areas which, for several years before the closures, had for all practical purposes been free of serious crime and which the commissioner, Garda Síochána, advised could be effectively policed from nearby stations. In view of this, there can be no question of the closing of some rural stations being in any way responsible for the crime increase that has taken place outside Dublin.
The contrary is the case. I have received from the commissioner particulars about a number of recent closures and the men who were thereby released from duty elsewhere were, in practically all cases, sent to strengthen the force in urban centres other than Dublin. On this point, I would point out that, just as the majority of indictable crimes committed in the State are committed in Dublin, the pattern outside Dublin is similar in the sense that crime is more prevalent in the urban areas. For instance, the city of Cork accounts for some 17 per cent of the total of the indicatable crimes committed outside Dublin. Garda strength in Cork has been increased by 29, or approximately 10 per cent, in the last year and a half. Such increases, where they are most needed, are possible only if the commissioner continues to apply the policy which he has been pursuing. The alternative, as I explained here last week, would be to embark on an extremely expensive policy of increasing substantially the total size of the force.
Is the Minister aware that quite apart from the closure of stations, there has been a large shift of strength away from the country into the city and that this is apparently linked to an increase of 17 per cent in the crime rate in the country areas? Will he further not agree that doubt is cast on his assertions about there being no increase in crime in areas where rural stations have been closed by his refusal to give, in reply to Parliamentary questions by me in this House, comparative crime figures for these areas before and after closure?
I have spent the last few minutes refuting Deputy Bruton's first point and making it perfectly clear that the increase in crime in provincial areas did not take place in rural areas where stations had been closed, because these areas were practically free of serious crime and have remained so. As I told the House last week, I have instructed the commissioner that if there is a substantial increase in crime in an area where a station has been closed down, the commissioner has authority to re-open the station. The bulk of the crime outside the Dublin Metropolitan Division has taken place in the large urban areas and not in the small rural areas where stations were closed.
Why not give the figures for these rural areas?