Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach describes the problem well. However, many people will want to know why nothing adequate is being done to protect public safety, which is the first duty of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Government. The Taoiseach appears to think, because he describes what is taking place as a "vicious feud", that somehow this explains matters and we should all turn a blind eye. One has some idea why people are fearful in their homes, given this type of calculated assassination at 10 p.m. in the evening in Firhouse, a very quiet part of my constituency. I hear the Taoiseach saying that the Minister was briefed by the Garda Commissioner and so on. However, we have long since passed that stage.

The disconnect, so to speak, between the Garda and some of the communities where gangland rule dictates is very severe. The previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, said he would be judged by how safe people feel in their homes and on the streets at the end of his term. If he were to be, it would be a very harsh judgment because people do not feel safe in their homes or on the streets. People are victims of anti-social behaviour like we have never seen before. Whatever briefings the Minister is having with the Garda authorities, there is no evidence of policing in whole tracts of my constituency and in urban and rural Ireland. That is the fact of the matter.

The Taoiseach talks about Operation Anvil. It is like shooting fish in a barrel for gardaí to stop motorists for bald tyres, defective lights and whatever. However, in the area of serious crime, the figures speak for themselves. The situation is deteriorating dramatically and if the Taoiseach accepts the benchmark of his comments in 1997 or the policy set out by the Government, he will see that there has been a complete failure because citizens feel helpless in the light of the extraordinary events now taking place every weekend. A State solicitor has said that even where prosecutions go to court, they cannot prevail because witnesses fear for their personal safety.

See this speech in context