Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

What is wrong with that reply is that the Taoiseach, like the Minister, is rhyming off statistics as if we were insulated in this House from what is going on in the streets and the estates. There is little point in telling people one is spending more money. The Government is spending more money, on the health services, for example, but it is not getting better value for it. Crime rates are worsening and more seriously, detection rates are worsening. In Dublin, the subject of this controversy, homicides were up 53% last year, yet detection rates in Dublin have fallen to 32%. If one takes any of the other areas, whether it is the 85% of burglaries, the 65% of thefts, the 62% of robberies or 44% of physical assaults which go undetected, we have a crisis of confidence in the Government's capacity to administer justice and police protection.

Many parts of the Taoiseach's constituency and of mine are tortured by anti-social behaviour yet it is not possible to have the relevant estates policed visibly by gardaí on the beat. The Minister seems to miss that point. He made a gracious apology for his entirely unbecoming antics yesterday and I will say no more of that. However, I heard people say he did not believe what he was saying. My concern is that he does believe what he is saying and does not acknowledge the concern on the streets and in the estates. He seems to confuse the number of interviews he gives with the number of additional gardaí he appoints.

Since the Government made zero progress on zero tolerance for the five years before the current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform took office, with the Taoiseach having the wisdom to remove the former Minister and put him in charge of hanging pictures and attending race courses, is there now an argument for appointing Deputy McDowell to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs? He speaks the language well and would be able to go about the country doling out little gifts from the dormant accounts fund. He is manifestly overstressed and there are citizens out there who do not feel safe in their homes or on the streets. The rate of detection is falling to a level which is alarming most people.

I draw the attention of the House to the 2001 Garda report on civilianisation. Under this plan, 556 gardaí were to be freed up to attend to the prevention of crime. Five years later, does the Taoiseach know how many of the 556 have been transferred to operational and crime prevention duties? None. Some 113 people have been appointed to civilian posts but no clerical administrative personnel have replaced gardaí to free them up for crime detection and prevention purposes. That is the snail's pace performance on civilianisation, just one aspect of the responsibility of the current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

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