Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

He did it for 16% of those who committed murder using firearms in the six years, 1998-2004. That is the record inherited from the Minister for zero tolerance, who said we could judge him at the end of his term of office by whether our citizens feel safer in their homes and in the streets. They feel safer in neither and that is his legacy. Deputy O'Donoghue cynically trotted out his policy of zero tolerance for months on end, while the Minister of the day was responsible for the slightest malfeasance. Now people live under the ferule of constant aggravation in the form of anti-social behaviour and serious crime by gangland killers whose actions in Coolock over the weekend demonstrate how casually they regard human life.

The Taoiseach's response has been completely inadequate. The Government is not getting the convictions, making the prosecutions effectively nor making the changes in law promised since it came into office. It has not resourced the Garda Síochána to do its job and the Taoiseach has, along with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, evaded his responsibility by means of calculated, co-ordinated diversions such as we saw yesterday as to who is responsible for what happened.

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