Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important issue. Life is cheap in Dublin West where gun crime has reached epidemic proportions. I draw the attention of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the recent, savage killing of Mr. Joseph Rafferty who was shot twice by a lone gunman as he left his apartment in the Ongar Park housing estate near Clonsilla at approximately 9.15 a.m. on 12 April. The shooting took place in broad daylight in a residential part of west Dublin. The brazen and casual manner in which the murder was carried out is especially horrific and demonstrates the extent to which gun crime has become an unavoidable part of life in Dublin West.

The Star newspaper reported on 19 May that the family of Mr. Rafferty had asked Sinn Féin councillor, Mr. Dathaí Doolan, to help them address the IRA death threat against their relative. The death threat originated with a dispute between Mr. Rafferty and an IRA member from the south inner city of Dublin about a relatively minor row at a 21st birthday party. What does the Minister have to say about this case and its chilling comparisons with the murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast?

Firearms are in plentiful supply and guns are being used to settle scores as never before. The fact that personal disputes are being addressed through fatal gun attacks is evidence that a gun culture has developed in Dublin. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform made the bold claim six months ago that he did not believe there was new energy in crime in Dublin and that events were, to some extent, the sting of a dying wasp. The Minister has been stung by the stupidity of that assertion. The recent spate of killings in Dublin West demonstrates the degree to which the Minister has been divorced from reality.

While the Minister has been in never-never land denying the reality of gun crime, gangs have steadily reasserted themselves in Dublin West. While the Garda has recently launched Operation Anvil to target the significant surge in gun crime, which is welcome, Dublin West continues to show signs of chronic under-policing. It is still awaiting the establishment of a proper community Garda force based in the area and armed with local knowledge. I was stunned at the end of 2004 when the Minister revealed to me that the number of community gardaí in Dublin West had fallen to 17 from 19 in 2003. In 1997, there were 18 community gardaí serving Dublin West and Blanchardstown. In the intervening eight years, the population of Dublin West has grown dramatically to reach 80,000 and is now much larger than Limerick or Galway.

While the Minister appointed 20 recent graduates of the Garda College at Templemore to work in Dublin West, is he able to confirm that they will remain in the area for at least two years? It is usually the case that they come, go and are never seen again. The failure of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to supply adequate numbers of community gardaí to urban areas, especially those which are under siege from gangs, guns and drugs, is a shameful indictment of the Government's failure on policing. We need real community and neighbourhood policing in Dublin West. That means communities being policed with gardaí back on the beat, not just cruising in squad cars. More effective training, longer assignments to the task and greater recognition for promotion purposes of the qualities required for successful community police are essential if the community garda service is to be successful.

International evidence shows that putting the police back into the community is the best solution to tackling the epidemic of gun crime and anti-social behaviour. Two years ago I told the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to travel to Boston to see how community policing operates there. It has taken him nearly two and a half years to get there. He has already been around the world before he managed to go there and have a look at what it means on the ground.

No issue is as important as this for the local community. The lawless operation of criminal gangs destroys the efforts of individual families and the whole community to create an environment where parents can feel secure for the safety and welfare of their children. I want the Minister to come back to Dublin West very soon to meet those who heard his assurances last year about the death of the gangs. They will give him an earful he will not forget for a long time but maybe he will learn enough to rise above his usual rhetoric and start to come to grips with the reign of terror currently operated by gangs in west Dublin under his nose.

I do not want to continue receiving e-mails from mothers and fathers who have just bought an expensive house in west Dublin, asking what they are to tell their four year old child about a man being shot down in cold blood at the end of their street. In the past six months that has happened four times with fatal consequences in Dublin West and many other times with less serious results. It is an epidemic.

See this speech in context