Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I would describe the "PD-ification" of our society as the electronic, closed-gate society we are developing. One comes along to a closed community, supposedly designed to give greater security, and one has to press a button before one can enter. Those inside may think they are living in a much more secure society. That personifies the situation to me. When I approach such buttons, I think to myself, this is a Progressive Democrats first preference household.

The safer and better way to bring order and coherence to our society is to start planning integrated communities properly, where people look out for each other. Simply planning, as this Government does, for the interests of builders and developers, and then tagging on social order legislation afterwards is not the way to go. Yet the Tánaiste has expressed surprise at the fact that the way society has been developed has broken up social capital and led to a lessened sense of community. We should start from the first principles of society, getting the planning right, designing a cohesive, collective society. This revolves around the types of decisions made in education and child care, in choosing public transport over the private car and so on. Bad decisions trigger a divided, unequal and unfair society and it cannot be surprising if this leads to anti-social behaviour or other negative reactions. The answer is not to slap on further punitive legislation on young people, but to recognise that the Government has got the fundamental design of society wrong. That is why the Government needs to be changed, to be thrown out of office.

I look forward to seeing the contents of this Bill on Committee Stage.

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