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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 14 Dec 1993

Vol. 437 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Burglaries in Rural Ireland.

I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle. I would like to share my time with Deputy Kitt.

That is satisfactory and agreed.

I want to take this opportunity to place on the record of this House the extreme anxiety and fear of so many people, particularly elderly people, who live and work in rural Ireland because of the increased incidence of break-ins, burglaries with and without violence, and the general level of lawlessness not previously encountered outside the major cities. There are countless examples of marauding gangs of criminals moving out of built-up areas like Dublin and Cork and hitting small villages and towns in the dead of night.

The terror these criminals bring to small, law-abiding communities was well illustrated last week at a very well attended meeting held in Moylough, County Galway, to discuss a series of wildcat break-ins into small businesses a week previously. The local post office was raided twice in 72 hours, while many premises both in Moylough village and in surrounding villages like Caltra and Mountbellew were raided during the dead of night.

Some of the criminals have been apprehended, thanks to the good work of the local Garda. However, the number of premises being hit continues to grow at an alarming rate and local communities are galvanising themselves against such attacks by any legal means at their disposal, such as involvement in community alert groups etc.

This area of County Galway forms part of the new community policing arrangements, but many local people are unhappy with some parts of this new arrangement. Although it is true that the new squad cars now patrol outlying rural areas not previously covered and give a better Garda presence, the decision to leave the local Garda stations, except the local headquarters at Mountbellew, unmanned for 22 out of the 24 hours per day causes real anxiety about the effectiveness of the new model. A local community garda is assigned to community duties at each Garda station and attends at the local station for two hours per day. However, the lack of a uniformed garda walking around such villages is causing concern.

Many people, including myself, believe that rural Ireland, because of its low crime rate relative to the Dublin figures, is left out in the cold and unless there is a much greater Garda presence in rural Ireland many small-time criminals who would otherwise be identified and dealt with will be allowed to develop into fully-fledged dangerous criminals and thugs. The recent allocation of the 81 new Garda recruits illustrates this point, because almost 60 were sent to duty points in Dublin. How many were actually sent to provincial towns and villages has not been published.

The Minister's new plan is welcome. It will deal in some limited way with an unprecedented upsurge of crime in the cities, but the preventive measures needed to stamp out petty crime in rural areas has been totally overlooked. I understand there is a blackspot period between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. when there is little or no police cover in rural areas. This should be addressed immediately.

I have more to say, but I want to allow Deputy Kitt to say a few words. I ask the Minister to bring this message back to her colleague, because this matter is causing real concern.

I thank Deputy Connaughton for sharing his time. I welcome the announcement of the package to fight crime by the Minister for Justice. I hope some aspects of that package, for example, the provision of extra gardaí and the details in relation to technology and computers to which the Minister referred will help deal with the problem Deputy Connaughton outlined. The critical crime period is between the hours of 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. and we ask the Minister to consider measures to address this problem. During that time the criminals attack businesses in particular and, most recently, post offices in rural Ireland. Some of those criminals come from Dublin, Limerick and Cork and believe they can get easy pickings in rural Ireland. Those people are probably well known in the cities and, therefore, they attack businesses and post offices in rural areas. I would like an extra patrol car to police rural areas between the hours of 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. That would provide some measure of crime prevention. The local Chief Superintendent Kilgannon spoke about that matter at a recent public meeting and stated that the main duty of the Garda is to prevent crime. I know the gardaí have good relations with the local community and the community alert scheme has helped them detect crime. There is a high crime detection rate in the Roscommon-east Galway district.

I welcome the provision of extra gardaí. I hope the Garda stations will be kept open as that will provide some reassurance to the people of rural Ireland. I hope the rural policing scheme will be improved to allow the gardaí do their work.

I wish to reply on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Justice.

The Minister fully appreciates the Deputy's concern in raising this matter tonight and is glad to have the opportunity to outline the policing arrangements that exist in the Moylough area of County Galway and the measures which are being taken and which are planned by the Garda authorities to prevent and detect crime there.

Moylough forms part of the community policing scheme for rural areas which was introduced in September, 1991. The local area headquarters is based at Mountbellew. The operation of the scheme has been reviewed on two occasions by senior Garda officers and they have found that the scheme has been working very well. The Minister has been informed by the Garda authorities that this is also the situation in Moylough. The gardaí informed the Minister that they are satisfied with the current policing arrangements for Moylough and are confident that the special measures they are taking will help to combat crime in the area.

The Minister has been informed by the Garda authorities that a total of 12 burglaries have been committed in the Moylough sub-district in the past 12 months. The gardaí have detected nine of these crimes and are actively pursuing the culprits for the remaining three. The detection rate in the sub-district is twice the national average. That is the good news.

The fact seems to be, however, that the successes of the Garda in tackling those crimes in the cities, pushes the criminals out into the countryside. The Minister states that because it is evident to the Garda that some of the crimes in the Moylough area are being committed by criminals from other places who are mobile.

Nevertheless, the Garda have particular strategies to deal with this type of problem. For example, the obvious one is increased patrolling and, I understand that some members have taken to patrolling in their own time. That is a clear indication of the level of commitment by the Garda. Further measures include the setting up of special mobile patrols within the areas affected as well as closer coordination and the use of foot and mobile patrols and checkpoints at various locations and unpredictable instances. Generally speaking, whatever arrangements regarding the deployment of Garda resources are necessary to meet the special requirements of the Moylough and neighbouring areas will be taken.

In response to concerns expressed by the local community in Moylough, senior Garda management, including the chief superintendent for the Roscommon-Galway East Division, met recently with local representatives. The Garda response was outlined, and it is fair to say that these measures evoked general satisfaction.

The Minister has no doubts whatsoever that the Garda are giving the matter the fullest attention it deserves, that the policing arrangements to cover the Moylough and surrounding areas will be kept under continuous review.

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