Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Strong provisions are in place to combat anti-social and unlawful behaviour. The primary basis for the law regarding public order offences is the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, which modernised the law in this regard. Because of the Minister's concerns about the abuse of alcohol and its contribution to public order offending and broader social problems, he brought forward tough new provisions to deal with alcohol abuse and its effect on public order in the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003. One provision in the Act is to broaden the application of the temporary closure order penalty, originally introduced to combat under age drinking, to cover also convictions for a series of offences, such as a licensee supplying intoxicating liquor to drunken persons and permitting disorderly conduct on the licensed premises.

The main purpose of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 2003 is to provide the Garda with additional powers to deal with late night street violence and anti-social conduct attributable to excessive drinking. It does this by providing for the closure of premises such as pubs, off-licences, late night clubs and food premises where there is disorder or noise on or close to the premises, as well as the making of exclusion orders on individuals convicted of a range of public order offences, in addition to any penalty they might receive under the Public Order Act 1994.

The Government decided in October 2004 to approve the recruitment of 2,000 additional gardaí to increase the strength of the force to 14,000. As a result there will be a combined organisational strength, of attested gardaí and recruits in training, of 14,000 in 2006. The additional resources will be targeted at the areas of greatest need, as is envisaged in the programme for Government. The programme identifies in particular areas with a significant drugs problem and a large number of public order offences, while it will be possible to address other priorities as well, such as the need to significantly increase the number of gardaí allocated to traffic law enforcement duties. The Minister has promised these additional gardaí will not be put on administrative duties but will be put directly into frontline, operational, high-visibility policing.

The Garda Síochána is now better resourced than at any time in its history. The Garda funding which the Minister secured in the 2006 Estimates is at a historical high of over €1.29 billion, compared with just €600 million in 1997. The provision for Garda overtime in 2006 will be €83.5 million, an increase of €23 million on the allocation for 2005. This will greatly aid the planned deployment of a visible policing service in a flexible, effective and targeted response to criminal activity and crime prevention.

The Minister was pleased to note a reduction in assault causing harm in 2004 compared with 2003. This trend has continued in 2005 with a 10.5% reduction in assaults causing harm, a 7.8% reduction in intoxicating liquor offences and a 4.4% reduction in public order offences in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.

The Minister believes the courts can give valuable support and protection to our communities in tackling anti-social behaviour. In this regard, he is finalising proposals to provide for anti-social behaviour orders and intends to introduce these proposals as Committee Stage amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004. The proposal will allow the Garda to apply to the courts by way of civil procedure for an anti-social behaviour order which will prohibit the person who is the subject of the order from behaving in an anti-social manner. The orders will be civil orders and the question of an offence will arise only if the person in question wilfully defies the order and continues to engage in the anti-social behaviour which is the subject of the order. The Minister believes anti-social behaviour orders used in the most glaring cases will be of real value in curbing this type of behaviour.

I draw the Deputy's attention to section 29 of the Bill which provides for a fixed penalty procedure for lesser public order offences. The procedure will apply to certain offences under the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, namely, intoxication in a public place and disorderly conduct in a public place. The Minister attaches great importance to the development of a real partnership between the Garda Síochána and local authorities on matters affecting policing.

The Minister is preparing guidelines, with the assistance of his colleagues, the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, on the composition of the joint policing committees. His view is that the best way to move this process forward is to establish a small number of joint policing committees on a pilot basis and he is consulting on the matter. Setting up a small number of pilot committees will provide an opportunity to identify any teething problems which may arise.

I have mentioned legislation the Minister has already introduced to combat the abuse of alcohol and the public order problems to which it gives rise. In addition, the Minister has recently published the general scheme of an intoxicating liquor Bill which will carry forward this work. The main purpose of the proposed legislation is to streamline and modernise our liquor licensing laws.

With regard to Tralee, the Minister has been made aware of the incidences of anti-social behaviour in the town. The document circulated to Deputies contains specific information on the position regarding Tralee.

See this speech in context