I wish to be associated with the condolences expressed to Mr. Babatunde. While my party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, raised the issue of crime in the capital city, we have had some serious incidents in Cork city in the past couple of weeks. There were two arson attacks, including a petrol bombing, as well as a stabbing close to the Taoiseach’s own constituency office. Some 203 bus services were cancelled because of antisocial behaviour and there has been violence as well as some other serious incidents. This is in the context, and I have made this point several times before, of Garda numbers in Cork consistently not being what they should be. We have seen a 4% reduction in the number of gardaí in the Cork city division in the past 12 months. If we take Mahon Garda station as an example, there were 31 gardaí in 2009, 22 in 2017, and now just 17. Does the Taoiseach agree with me that Cork is not getting a fair share or anywhere near enough Garda resources?

I am very aware of those attacks, as well as the violent events and incidents on the streets of Cork last summer. We need to recruit and allocate more gardaí to Cork city in particular. We intend to establish a city task force for the city centre area. More generally, there is a proactive plan ahead to increase the number of gardaí throughout the country which will enable us to deploy more to areas like Cork and elsewhere.