Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I am always delighted to talk to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and I will certainly talk to him on this. We have increased the budget of the Garda Síochána by 75%. We have provided an additional 1,200 prison places. We have reformed the law in many respects. If there are continuing deficiencies, I am certain the Minister would be happy to examine them with a view to bringing forward changes. I would not like to see us become a society like that which exists in the US, where guns are so freely available that tragedies frequently occur like that which we heard about yesterday. We have the best of both worlds here. While there are criminal elements here which were behind recent bank robberies and kidnappings, a large proportion of burglaries is driven by the need to feed a drug habit. That is why we must not spare any effort to deal with the serious drug problems that exist, as they are fuelling crime throughout the country.

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