Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I thank the Acting Chairman, Deputy Costello, and the Ceann Comhairle for giving me an opportunity to raise this issue on the Adjournment.

The rise of anti-social behaviour in our towns and villages, manifesting itself as vandalism and hooliganism, is a national issue but it is being ignored by the Government. Taking the specific example of Kilrush in County Clare, it has been subject in recent weeks to a spate of vandalism attacks on cars, houses and one bus. These include arson attacks, the smashing of windscreens and the damaging of car bodyworks. The result is that elderly people now fear for their safety and worry about their property. They are afraid to go out at night. Parents are fearful when their children are out. People's livelihoods are affected and the town's reputation as a maritime and heritage centre, attractive for tourism and new business, is affected. It is hard enough for any town in Ireland, let alone a town on the west coast, to attract industry and tourism without having its reputation tarnished for an excessively long time due to lack of action at a national level.

Kilrush has a population of 2,700 and is earmarked for decentralisation. Despite, the Government's mishandling of that process, Kilrush is oversubscribed. However, its rightful place as the capital of west County Clare is unfairly affected.

There has been some success by local gardaí in making arrests on this specific issue but this will not be the end of the matter. This issue has been allowed to fester, as have countless similar ones in other towns and villages, where small groups, usually of juveniles, run riot at night and cause thousands of euro of damage. This must be stopped.

I am calling on the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, to draw up a strategic plan to tackle such problems, using the resources of a special Garda unit to assist local efforts in dealing with the ongoing and escalating acts of vandalism and anti-social behaviour in Kilrush. Special operations such as Operation Anvil, targeting drugs and crime sprees in Dublin and Limerick, have met with success. What is needed in Kilrush is a similar operation but on a reduced scale where Garda expertise in tackling an entrenched problem is brought to bear. A special but temporary operation that was, in the words of the Minister, focused, sustained, targeted and relentless would augment the existing Garda presence in Kilrush of 27 members.

In reply to a parliamentary question earlier this year, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform informed me the special needs of towns like Kilrush are being taken into account when plans are drawn up to distribute and manage the 2,000 extra gardaí to be recruited to tackle areas with crime problems. I welcome the appointment of a new superintendent in the area. I hope during his stay he will have success in dealing with these problems. However, the people of Clare are tired of the Government replacing action with the drawing up of plans and consideration of approaches. It simply is not good enough.

In many towns there is an emerging crime culture with career criminals in the making. An urgent response is required now if these problems are not to mushroom out of control and cost taxpayers millions of euro in the future. A mix of overt and covert operations on a small scale would yield huge results. I ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to deal with this problem and take into account what has happened. The relative cost of such special efforts would be small in contrast to the long-term cost of such vandalism going unchecked and the ultimate bill of sending offenders to prison for lengthy periods.

The State has a duty to intervene early in such cases on both monetary and social grounds. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, has been advised repeatedly by experts in the area that moneys spent on Youthreach and similar intervention schemes pay enormous dividends. This contrasts with massive cost overruns when buying sites for prisons, let alone building such prisons and housing the prisoners.

Many of these problems have emerged from housing estates which the State has decided to abandon. From the beginning, it failed to provide adequate planning, neglected community facilities and dropped the word "playground" from its vocabulary. When teenagers in such estates begin to go out of control, there is an even greater responsibility on the State to provide enlightened intervention schemes before another generation is lost to society as useful citizens. I call on the Minister to make a special effort in towns like Kilrush to sort out the anti-social problems that have people living in fear.

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