Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I do not have time to list the 20 pieces of legislation that were passed between 1985 and 2005, but they are on the record in a reply from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to a parliamentary question I tabled earlier in the year. If we put those 20 pieces of legislation into four or five different Acts rather than implement them incrementally, Members would wonder why there was so much law and no order. What does this law do to law-abiding citizens? It does not make the hardened criminal shake in his shoes.

We need to strike a balance. I have never apologised for believing firmly in law and order, but all law and no order is not the solution. I ask the Minister and Members of the House to give some thought to this. Some 43 legislative measures were supposed to deal with crime, but the crime level rose and the number of gardaí per head of population decreased. There is something seriously wrong there. The Minister and his Department have a constitutional duty to protect the good name and character of law-abiding citizens and we do not want to give powers to people to supervise those who are not breaking the law, nor to intervene with them in any secretive way. I have no problem with any law enacted by the Minister in order to deal with criminals, but he must make sure the safeguards are there for law-abiding people.

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