Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I raise the matter of Garda visibility, which the Minister has alluded to in the House already. He has, in tandem with the Garda Commissioner, worked to increase Garda visibility on the streets of Dublin city, and certainly in villages such as Rathcoole and Saggart in my constituency we have seen an increase in Garda visibility. Are there plans to continue the deployment of these high-visibility patrols across the suburbs of Dublin? Villages like Lucan and Clondalkin in my constituency would very much benefit from increased Garda presence and visibility.

In tandem with that, we need to see further roll-out of the youth diversion programme. High Garda visibility is important but the youth diversion programme is also very important for engaging with young people and diverting them away from a path into criminality. Particularly in fast-growing areas like Newcastle, Saggart and Rathcoole, where there is no youth diversion programme cover at the moment, I would be very keen to work with the Minister to ensure we up that coverage and prevent this issue rather than have to deal with it in the future.

I thank the Deputy for his question. Obviously, I agree with him about Garda visibility. That is not happening by accident; it is happening because we are getting the number in An Garda Síochána up and a decision has been made by Government, and implemented by the Commissioner, to have high-visibility policing. I am very pleased to hear there is apparent visibility of gardaí in Rathcoole and Saggart. As I said to Deputy Murphy, the plan is to try to roll it out throughout the country.

The Deputy also mentioned youth diversion programmes. In fact, there is a great link between An Garda Síochána and youth diversion programmes. One of the reasons An Garda Síochána is so popular in this country is that it is not regarded or viewed as a law-enforcement agency. It is part of the community. We now have youth diversion programmes throughout the country. The gardaí play a huge role in them and are hugely supportive of them. We are never going to solve issues in terms of young people involved in crime by incarcerating them or just bringing them through the criminal justice system. We have to try to divert them as otherwise we are failing in our responsibility to them.