I wish to raise the issue of Garda numbers, particularly in Border counties. I refer, in particular, to comments made by two members of the Garda Representative Association, one from the Donegal division and the other from the Cavan-Monaghan division, in which they highlighted their concerns about Brexit and what might happen in the event that there was a hard border. They were putting the Government on notice that the Garda did not have the numbers to provide an adequate policing service for the community as things stood, never mind in the event that there was a hard Brexit. To highlight this point, they gave a couple of examples. They referred to Clones, County Monaghan, which has a population of over 3,000 people. All it has is one sergeant and two gardaí. Monaghan Garda station recently lost three members, or 10% of its entire workforce, and they have not been replaced. The area from the Cavan border to the Armagh border which covers three counties is patrolled by one patrol car with two personnel on board, if we are lucky. It includes Monaghan town, Clones and the entire countryside. This clearly shows that there is a serious issue with Garda numbers in the Border counties. I would like the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to address it. In addition, he might outline his plans in the event that there is a hard border. What are his plans to strengthen the Garda force in the Cavan-Monaghan division, County Donegal and along the entire Border frontier?

I wish to raise an issue along similar lines. It is not specifically about Garda numbers but about rural crime. To be honest, I had no intention of raising the issue this morning until, about half an hour ago, I received a telephone call from a gentleman who lives within four miles of me at home. He and his wife are both in their 70s. They had a family SME all of their lives and employed at least four to five people, for whom they paid taxes, with their own. Last Friday evening, when they came home having been shopping, they discovered that their business and house had been totally ransacked. This morning the man in question was in tears on the telephone. The couple are now prisoners in their own house. He cannot leave the house unless his wife goes with him and she will not stay on her own. As he said, he is a prisoner in his own house having contributed to society for a lifetime. He also said the lack of policing in rural Ireland was the cause of the majority of the problems. Nobody is aware of how rampant crime is in rural areas and how vulnerable and targeted those in the age group in question feel when in their homes. They worked all their lives for them in order to have a little comfort in their retirement.

I do not know whether we would get all of the answers if the Minister was here. We are recruiting extra gardaí and investing extra resources, but it is a question of how the extra gardaí and resources are being deployed. There is no strategic policing code for rural areas, but there is a need for one, as opposed to a code for policing across the entire country. Policing in urban areas is completely different from policing in rural areas, but this is not recognised. Politicians on every side will say such a barracks was kept open. Barracks in our area were kept open and everybody was taking credit for it. There is a maximum of two gardaí on duty at any one time and they are covering an area that was once covered by three or four barracks, each of which used to have four to six gardaí. That is the root of the problem. The man who telephoned me was in tears and I practically was. I had no intention of raising this issue in the House, but the man's conversation moved me to do so. He is a genuine individual who is now, as he states, a prisoner in his own house. Society should be ashamed. We have to take some action to change it.

Hear, hear.

I wish to follow what both Senators Robbie Gallagher and Paul Daly said. I ask the Deputy Leader to invite the Minister of State at the Department of Defence to come to the House to have a discussion on the future of the Defence Forces. Yesterday Senator Gerard P. Craughwell outlined some very alarming statistics on the Order of Business. I would specifically like to ask the Minister of State, in the light of and given the unknowns associated with Brexit, what plans he has for the Defence Forces and the security of the Border. A number of years ago the most modern army barracks in Europe, Dún Uí Néill in Cavan town, were closed. I have raised this issue continuously in the House. We were told the barracks had been closed strategically to improve the quality of the Defence Forces.

Almost the entire Border is being left without any Army personnel other than skeleton crews based in County Louth and in County Donegal because the personnel who are allegedly based in both of those barracks are not based in those barracks. They are operating, some of them in this city and some of them in the Government Chief Whip's town of Athlone. It is time we got real here. Our Border is not being secured-----

Hear, hear.

-----and as a result, it is putting the 26 counties of the State, and indeed, the six counties of Northern Ireland, in jeopardy. We have to face up to that reality.