Will the Minister not agree that investment in crime prevention is extremely worthwhile despite the fact that all the Departments of the public service are faced with cutbacks. If he so agrees, will he explain to the House why he saw fit to reduce the level of activity by the juvenile liaison officers who are now being told that they can no longer work at weekends?

I assure the Deputy on the question of neighbourhood watch schemes which is the subject matter of the question I am dealing with——

We are talking about crime prevention.

——that there is positive evidence of the Government's intention to expand this scheme and for very good reasons. The principal objective of the neighbourhood watch scheme is the prevention of residential burglary. The residential burglary figure fell by 24 per cent in the period 1984-86 in the country as a whole and by 30 per cent in the DMA. The provisional figure for the DMA for the first nine months of 1987 indicates a 10 per cent decrease over the coresponding period for 1986. The crime rates generally have also fallen but the rates of decrease are less — 15 per cent for the period 1984-86 and 18 per cent for the DMA for the same period. This appears to indicate that the neighbourhood watch scheme is effectively meeting its objective. The House will know that the Garda are in the process of establishing an additional 60 schemes.

I said crime prevention pays.