Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad to be able to speak to this motion. It was very interesting to hear Deputy Connaughton and I am sorry he was not able to put all the results of the survey on the record. The survey pertained to Galway but the results would be the same in every constituency. People are worried about crime and the absence of law and order.

As was stated, the events of last weekend were like events from the wild west — this is not funny but very serious. I use the road on which the shootings took place and thousands of commuters use it every day. We were very lucky that ten or 20 people were not killed. The people involved were wearing protective clothing on the basis that they were going to shoot one another from cars. One would not have seen this in New York or Chicago in the time of Al Capone.

People are asking me what is going on, whether we have any Minister responsible for justice and whether we have any gardaí and law and order. They also ask what we are to do about crime. If events like the ones to which I referred continue, they will happen in every corner of the country. It is a bit like Northern Ireland in that there was a time in which nobody could go into south Armagh. Parts of Dublin are the same. I heard the Garda, Minister and Taoiseach state there are parts of Dublin that the Garda cannot enter and man. We have a very good, trained Army and if there is a problem in any part of the country that requires people who can use weapons, it should be used.

We have enough powers and Acts — we need to give the Garda enough money, resources and manpower to deal with the terrible crimes that are being committed. It is time we used the Army in this regard. I know people in the media will say we cannot have this but we can. There was a riot in this city two or three weeks ago not too far from this House. Our Army should have been used that evening to clear the thugs from the streets such that they would have been shown, once and for all, that there is law and order in this country.

The power is with the criminal all the time. The daughter of a constituent of mine, a young Leneghan girl, was murdered savagely in Britain a few months ago and last week the police in England were able to bring six individuals before the courts and have them charged with murder. In this country, however, there are two very serious cases involving two housewives and mothers who were murdered in their own homes, yet nobody has been charged to this day. Evidence points towards certain individuals, yet they cannot be brought before the courts. The time has come to give power to the ordinary citizens of this State who believe in law and order.

I have said previously in this House that the Garda and resources of the State sometimes do not target the right people but target the simple people who commit minor crimes. These crimes have to be dealt with because big crimes follow on from small ones, but we must take on the thugs who are running this city and shooting one another with guns. There is no longer respect for life or law and order. The thugs seem to believe they can enter anybody's house.

In this regard, consider poor Donna Cleary, an innocent woman who was killed at a party by a guy who shot her through the window. How many other people have been shot like this? I heard a Member refer to people who were shot in this State for owing €500 for drugs. Something must be done once and for all to deal with these thugs.

There was a time in this country when there was respect for life and law and order. The gangsters and criminals have taken over part of the country and we must take them on. We have enough powers and I hope whatever legislation is necessary is used. If the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 is to be the last Bill to deal with these people, that is fine — let us deal with them, take them on and get rid of them once and for all.

It is sad when the US Government is warning US tourists that Ireland is no longer a safe place. This is very serious given that the direct opposite was the case ten years ago. At that time, we were telling our citizens that the US was not safe to enter. It is now safer to walk the streets of New York than those of Dublin at any hour of the night. It is time we reversed this trend, returned power to the police and the people and cleaned up the places being taken over by criminals. If the Garda Síochána does not have the resources, it is time to bring in the Army and use it for back-up to ensure we can protect our citizens from guys who are playing with guns and want to take on the State with them. I never want to see another citizen put at risk by people who have become reckless and have gone out of control. They have no respect for their own lives, those of others or those of the police. It is time we gave the Garda the back-up and necessary resources to get these criminals off our streets.

We have not dealt with anti-social behaviour over the years. As a practising politician, I believe there is not a politician in this House who does not have people from housing estates in his or her clinic stating the problem of residents not behaving themselves is getting out of hand. Neither local authorities nor the Garda Síochána is prepared to take on these people. The local authority and Garda will claim that a neighbour will be required to give evidence in court. The neighbours are afraid to go to court. I know of one case in my town where the neighbours were forced to leave the house and not those creating the anti-social behaviour. They did not get the back-up of the State or the resources.

I met a woman in my office recently. Her daughter had been savagely beaten on the street and a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Although I am advised that I should not write to the DPP, I will do so and express my view as a Member of the Oireachtas. I do not care if he brings me before any court in the State. I went to the local superintendent and set up a meeting for that mother. A person hopped out of a car and hit her child with a wheel brace. The child is now to be dealt with through some juvenile provision. The woman felt let down by the Garda and the State. She was certainly let down by the DPP. She told me that nobody came or wrote to her to inform her why the case was thrown out. Nobody told her what was contained in the file that was sent to the DPP.

She had to take the photographs and give them to the Garda Síochána. She said she was sick and tired of the country as there is no law or order. She tried to teach her family to stay within the law and she now feels she may need to take the law into her hands as the State and its prosecutor let her down. Neither she nor any member of her family ever broke the law. As there was a dispute in the school, the perpetrator, who was high on drugs, hopped out of the car and hit the child with a wheel brace. If any Member of the House got a puncture, would they even know where the wheel brace was? The act was premeditated and was wrong.

This case will need to go back to the DPP and the perpetrator will need to come before the courts. While the person who had committed the crime got social workers to talk to and free legal aid, my poor client was not contacted by anybody until I contacted the superintendent. I hope the superintendent will meet the family next week and explain to them what went wrong and whether the Garda will raise the case with the DPP again. If we are going to have the law for the criminals and not for the law-abiding citizens, we live in a sad country.

While we can make all the legislation we like in this House, if we do not allocate the resources and money, do not give the back-up to the police and do not have the courts deal with such criminals, we are wasting our time. In the coming years, this will not be a nice country in which to live.

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