Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to comment on what is referred to as Border criminality, fuel laundering and the dumping of sludge. It is much wider than that. There is extortion and people have been badly injured. Recently one person, Frank McCabe Jnr, was blinded and lost his eye when he was removing a derogatory poster when he was going to work at 6 a.m. Another person was shot in the south Armagh area. There was a mobilisation of people right across south Armagh. Thousands of people came out to confront the people involved in that type of criminality or any type of criminality. Deputy Adams spoke at it and said that if anyone had any fears of going to the authorities in the Six Counties or the Twenty-six Counties, he was prepared to give the names or do whatever was necessary. That was the entire community moving against this criminality. Some of it comes from their areas and from other areas. I know that Deputy Adams has met senior gardaí in his constituency of Louth on this and I also know that he has met the PSNI about this type of criminality. I am also glad that the Minister referred to the fact those types of activities are not confined to Border regions and are fairly widespread. A number of years back in my own county, which is a long way away from the Border, there was similar criminality. The only way to deal with it is for all of us to work together as elected representatives with our communities to stamp out this type of activity because it is fairly widespread.