Mr. Vincent Jennings:

It was as a result of Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman directing some senior level gardaí to facilitate Ms Buckley from RGDATA, Dublin city and ourselves to look at what was happening in Belfast. It was information sharing. It was photographs. It was records. It was anybody who was convicted. They had to be convicted. Obviously, one could not talk about suspects and the like, but they were convicted. There was photo-sharing. There was a central clearing office organised by the retail group in Belfast and it worked its way into the rest of Northern Ireland as a result. They facilitated the sharing of photographs with all other retailers in the area and, therefore, one was aware of people, one was aware of what their proclivities were and one was aware of new people. People were told, by the PSNI, "That guy is out of jail now", or otherwise, and to be aware of it. It was a much more collaborative approach.

I would like to think Ms Buckley would back me up on this one. When we brought this to fruition, we got a reasonably warm reception from the Department of Justice. They could see how it could work, they could see how they could amend legislation to bring it about and the like, but the gardaí, to a man, were opposed to it and it died a death. It is amazing how it works perfectly in Northern Ireland but cannot work here, and there is no willingness to bring it about. That is the retail. The sharing of information still is something that we would benefit from but, because at the moment, even though I know that it happens, we cannot go to gardaí with photographs of people and say, "That fella is after stealing from me. Would you make others aware of it?" It works. We saw a situation where a post office was robbed recently, they wanted to share with other post offices in the area and they were told that they cannot do that even though it was to the benefit of society at large.

Relating to the ASBOs, the anti-social behaviour order is something that is used throughout the world, particularly for youngsters who need to have manners put upon them. They are excluded from certain areas. There is at least one shopping centre in north Dublin which uses it and insists upon it. It is fortunate that there is a Garda station close by but it insists upon it being done. It is useful and it works. It excludes people from certain areas once they have met the criteria that they should be barred, because that is one aspect. Once they come into an area, they can cause havoc. Keeping them out of the area is the solution.

I cannot tell Deputy Shanahan anything about the business watch that Senator Sherlock was speaking about. Maybe somebody else can.