A lot of my colleagues have spoken about their wonderful villages and towns and how gorgeous they are. Unfortunately, when I was scrolling on the social media page for my local authority, Meath County Council, yesterday, I was saddened to see the numerous new reports of graffiti all around Navan, including on the Circular Road, Convent Lane and the brand new pedestrian and cycle bridge. It is soul destroying to see that. Navan town has been part of the Project 2030 plan and the town is looking beautiful, so it is sad to see that people have used spray paint to leave graffiti on numerous walls, buildings and bridges.

Every time that graffiti needs to be removed, council staff must divert time and resources away from other important services, like maintenance work, that benefit the wider community. They benefit people's mams, sisters or somebody in a house that needs boiler maintenance, yet staff have to go and take off graffiti. We cannot spend millions of euro regenerating towns only to allow them to be vandalised. Graffiti is not a victimless act. It costs taxpayers and businesses thousands of euro, damages civic pride and discourages people from spending time in town centres. We need a zero-delay clean-up policy, strong enforcement and meaningful engagement with young people so that Navan remains a town that people are proud to live and work in and visit.

Should we consider creating a national arts and mural strategy that each council can avail of? Should there be tougher penalties for those offending? Should we set up a QR code at peak locations so that these crimes can be reported? We have the Criminal Damage Act, which includes the offence of defacement of property, and the Litter Pollution Act 1997, which clearly includes graffiti as a specific offence, but they are not working. We cannot continue to spend taxpayers' money making towns and villages vibrant communities but have people who are, for some reason, trying to reflect their artistic skills by spraying graffiti on newly built buildings and walls. Should we start meeting them? Should we see what they want? Do they want specific mural walls? I think they should get them and that they could add to towns. In New York, for example, you can see many beautiful buildings with gorgeous artwork on them. Wicklow has been a great county for it as well. Should we start meeting these people and giving them a platform and an opportunity to express their artistic flare? We should also combine that with tougher penalties? We need to stop this. I would welcome a debate on the matter.