Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

On the Minister's performance yesterday he does not need any personal security. If the Taoiseach wants to move outside Dublin I will instance the case of the answers given to my colleagues, Deputies Stagg and Wall. The increase in serious crime in the past five years in Kildare is 55%. We can swop figures all day. Those figures came from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The fact is the position is worsening and there is no confidence out there. People are concerned when they are the subject of a burglary, a robbery or a personal assault that the crime will go undetected. That is the issue and the Minister speaks about all his legislation. Let us take the Criminal Justice Bill which has been around for two years. When published it had 34 pages. Today the Minister published 340 pages of amendments to the Bill. That is the way this Minister legislates. The Bill bears no similarity to the one originally published. When the House demands adequate time to debate it, he will complain the House is an irritant. The Taoiseach gets up and defends him for all his life is worth, despite the memory of the posters. We have some great photographs from yesterday for posters in the next election. The Taoiseach will not say a word of condemnation about, for example, the disgraceful behaviour of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the floor of the House when he sought to link the Green Party to rioters and looters in South Frederick Street. It was an outrageous charge to make against the Green Party and its members and yet the Taoiseach never issued a word of rebuke.

The fact is that detection rates are falling at an alarming rate. Some 85% of burglaries go undetected and 44% of personal assaults go undetected. That is why people are afraid to walk some streets of this and other cities at night. That is why people are targeted for anti-social behaviour in their homes in estates in parts of my constituency and in parts of the Taoiseach's constituency and there is no Garda to be found. The Garda reforms have foundered because the Minister is not doing his primary job and the Taoiseach appears quite happy to acquiesce in that position. He will hear all about it when he goes out to meet real people.

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