Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In respect of all the issues to which the Deputy referred, if he were to give credit to what is being done with the resources being spent, I could take him seriously and say we should do more, and I would not oppose that. The Deputy is aware that we invest tens of millions of taxpayers' money in local development social inclusion programmes. We invest enormous amounts in community development support programmes. We have invested almost €100 million in the young people's facilities and services fund. Resources are being invested to provide for the educationally disadvantaged. We resource various voluntary organisations which require funding to provide for early intervention in the case of children. We are also providing social housing and social facilities in these areas. I agree with such measures.

However, we should not let all of that mask the situation. There are groups of people whom the Deputy and I know and of whom we are not proud who are gangsters, thugs and criminals and who do not need the help of any of these interventions. The Deputy rightly said that there are people in my area and his area who operate activities to make large amounts of money to maintain properties in Spain, Amsterdam and elsewhere. If we were tough enough and strong enough, we would stand up to some of these people, as the Deputy does in his area and I regularly do in my area, but these people operate with immunity on many occasions.

Gardaí do their best. My only regret, given the number of years I have been trying to address this problem, is that we are so easy on these people. We believe that a garda going out with a book and a pencil will deal with these people and, if a garda were to hit the wrong one, he would be up before a board under the disciplinary code. This is unfair to the Garda force. How in the name of God can a garda with a pencil and a book deal with people who——

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