On the commitment to community policing in the programme for Government, on Tuesday I received a response from the Tánaiste to a parliamentary question I tabled concerning the number of community gardaí in the Lucan and Clondalkin areas. The question was part of a series of questions related to the west side of Dublin where there is a serious crime problem and, as the Tánaiste will be aware, a horrific murder took place in recent days. The reply I received indicated that six community gardaí had been allocated to Lucan, an area in which tens of thousands of people live, and a glorious total of seven community gardaí had been allocated to Clondalkin. This effectively means that an urban area which, unfortunately, is experiencing a serious problem and is affected by the spillover of the gang crime that is disfiguring Dublin and other parts of the country has almost no community gardaí. This matter is the responsibility of the Tánaiste, as the Minister for Justice and Equality, although I acknowledge that direct line responsibility lies with the Garda Commissioner. Is the Tánaiste speaking to the Commissioner? Does she consider that six community gardaí for Lucan and seven for Clondalkin in any way adequate? Incidentally, the number of community gardaí in Blanchardstown is not much higher.

I deplore the senseless loss of life we have seen again in recent days. I am ensuring that the Government will provide resources to An Garda Síochána to ensure it can intervene effectively. We have also made a decision to increase the number of gardaí in all areas, including Lucan and Clondalkin. Other areas, for example, Blanchardstown, the local area of Deputy Burton and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, have seen an increase in the number of gardaí assigned to them. Almost every Garda division has been assigned additional gardaí and we will assign additional gardaí again this year as we continue to recruit an extra 800 gardaí.

When this Government came into office, Templemore was closed and there was no Garda recruitment.

That was the previous Government.

We have changed that completely. We are determined that every community will have Garda resources in place to intervene. The Garda has been intervening, preventing crime, bringing people to justice and seizing weapons and drugs. It has achieved significant success.

Unfortunately, there are people who are intent on violence. I want to ensure that every community has the resources to deal with this challenge.