John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this important motion. The Celtic tiger economy and the associated affluence of the country in recent years is positive and to be welcomed by all. There is, unfortunately, a negative side to this progress. We have seen a distinct lack of respect creep into society, accompanied by a lack of moral values. We are paying a price for our prosperity and affluence.

It is time this issue was tackled to ensure that the greatest civil liberties of all, namely, that people can sleep easy in their beds at night and walk the streets of our towns and cities during the day or night, are protected. Those criticising the introduction of anti-social behaviour orders take the high moral ground. They are the goody-goodies who claim we are infringing this or that right. I come down firmly on the side of the ordinary citizen, young or elderly. The most important civil liberties we must protect are, as I have just said, the right to walk our streets without fear of being assaulted, intimidated or otherwise and to sleep easy in our beds at night. We owe this to the elderly. I fully support the implementation of any measures, including anti-social behaviour orders, which would achieve this.

Reference was made by several speakers to the number of gardaí. As they were parochial in their contributions, I will be parochial as well. In the town where my office is based, Newcastlewest in west Limerick, there has been substantial population growth in the past four or five years but little increase in Garda numbers. While I compliment the gardaí in that district for their excellent work in crime prevention and detection, more prevention is needed. The only way to achieve this is by appointing additional gardaí to places like Newcastlewest and other small rural stations throughout west Limerick.

There have been increases in Garda numbers at national level, which I welcome and for which I compliment the Minister and the Government. There have also been increases at divisional level in the Limerick Garda division. However, there has been little or no increase in the district. We tend to concentrate our minds on the larger centres of population where crime is more serious, but this is sometimes at the expense of the smaller locations where crime may not be as serious but where anti-social behaviour and assaults occur late at night. We must clamp down on this behaviour. It is an important issue for the Government and one which must be addressed.

Deputy Deasy raised the issue of sentencing and referred to a specific line in the Bill. Like Deputies Deasy and Curran, if a section of the Bill gives increased discretion in sentencing, I disagree with it, although I depend on the contributions of the previous speakers as I have not studied the Bill. There is too much discretion at present. It has been used not only in high profile cases but also in lesser known cases. The public finds it hard to understand how a person who commits a crime and is sent to prison is released just months later. At the other end of the scale, a person who commits a much lesser crime can spend much longer in prison. I am not satisfied with the application of discretion. Minimum mandatory sentencing should mean just that. With regard to a gun amnesty and subsequent prosecutions for those who do not avail of it, it is important that we would implement to the letter of the law the minimum mandatory sentence.

I commend the Bill. I wish the Minister every success in his endeavours and compliment him on his performance to date.

See this speech in context