Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There is no watershed in what the Taoiseach has said. This is a repetition of the statistics he has recited before. What criteria and measures of performance will follow the watershed to which he referred? Is it not a fact that there is anarchy on the streets and in the suburbs of Dublin city? Despite the Taoiseach's soft tones, the current situation is worse than it was five years ago and infinitely worse than ten years ago when the Taoiseach made the remarks I quoted back to him.

In Coolock, Santry and Raheny, the number of homicides increased eightfold in the space of five years, from four in 2000 to 32 in 2005. The number of serious assaults has doubled, from 135 in 2000 to 294 in 2005. That is the measure of performance of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Government.

Yesterday morning, the Taoiseach said that many people who commit murders are released after seven years. Most people in this country would agree with him on that but, as he often reminds us, he cannot have it both ways. The sentence for murder in this country is automatically a life sentence and life means life. The reason Malcolm McArthur is still in jail is because the Minister refused to let him out.

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