I welcome the Minister.
The problem I am raising today is not one of detection of crime in north Wicklow but of prevention. When I raised this issue before, it was misinterpreted by some, including the Minister for Justice at the time as being a criticism of the Garda which it is not. It was also misinterpreted as a criticism of Bray. It is not. What I will ask the Minister to do in his reply — if he can depart from his script — is to tell us how he intends to tackle this problem. The Garda have a very good record for detecting crime in north Wicklow but they have an extremely poor record of preventing crime. The problem in the Bray area is that the sort of crimes of which we speak are high profile and very violent, and they give the town a very bad name. As a result Bray is regarded by many as a criminal's paradise and a cross between Dodge City and Chicago. It appears that criminal activity is allowed to flourish in the town. In recent weeks I have had representations from parents saying they cannot let their children out after 9 p.m. and from the elderly, who are terrified to walk the streets of the town they lived in for many decades. They believe the criminal gangs have declared this open season for their activities. This is obvious in take away restaurants at night.
The Minister may not be aware of it, but there was another attempted armed robbery in Castle Street in Bray two weeks ago which received national coverage in the press. During the Bray festival last year there was also a high profile incident involving guns. This is bad for the town and could be prevented if the Minister put more gardaí on the beat. I hope that the Minister will not tell me there are 60 gardaí working in the Bray district. I acknowledge that but we need gardaí on the streets, not sitting at desks analysising crimes already committed, even though they are doing a good job of that.
The seafront in Bray invites this sort of criminal activity. The shelters there attract under age drinkers at night. These shelters should either be demolished or gardaí should permanently patrol the seafront. Bray is a seaside town with enormous tourism potential. Its present image is very bad for tourism and for the potential business investment the town is trying to attract. Factories have been vandalised and shops have been robbed not only by indigenous criminal gangs but by criminals from other areas who regard Bray as soft pickings and a paradise for their activities. The only solution is more gardaí.
Unfortunately, this activity has spread to Greystones, the fastest growing town in the greater Dublin area; two years ago, it was the fastest growing town in Europe. Greystones is suffering because it is neglected. There is no infrastructure in Greystones, the roads and footpaths are neglected, the sewerage system is grossly inadequate, the sea is polluted, the town has no proper transport facilities and, what is worse, there is also an inadequate number of gardaí to protect the population. The population of Greystones and of Bray, especially the older people need protecting by the visible presence of gardaí on the beat. In Greystones, there has been a series of robberies and an upsurge in vandalism. Some weeks ago, there was an atrocious incident of vandalism in a housing estate where a group of thugs, as yet undetected, damaged 30 to 40 cars. A Garda presence in that estate would have prevented this. We have daily reports of burglaries in both towns. In the last year, the Greystones post office has been robbed several times, as have branches of the Allied Irish Bank and, the more topical, the Irish Permanent——
