David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has a very tough job. Society has changed enormously and the population has increased and become far more diverse and mobile. Coupled with this, gardaí do not seem to be present, particularly in rural areas. Garda stations are being closed and locked up. Very often gardaí do not know who is living in the areas under their watch, what they are doing or where they come from. In some cases, the gardaí do not even know the areas. This must be addressed because the detection and prevention of crime are very important. It has been said time and again that if people are afraid of being caught, they will think twice about committing a crime. If they get away with one, they will commit more.

People are very concerned about crime. I attend meeting after meeting in my constituency at which people say their Garda station is closed and ask where they should go to meet a garda. They ask why all the stations, which are expensive properties, are locked up. Very often the stations are done up and then locked up because there are no gardaí. We need to train gardaí and furnish them properly with up-to-date, modern equipment. That is a priority.

I have never seen a motion such as this in the nine years I have been a Member. Perhaps the Office of the Ceann Comhairle will let me know if there is a precedent to taking legislation in the manner proposed. There probably is but, if so, it is very rare.

The Criminal Justice Bill 2004 was produced initially in July 2004 and almost two years later, we are still awaiting Committee Stage, which fact alone speaks volumes. During my Second Stage speech, I expressed concern about the practice of publishing incomplete Bills and amending them substantially on Committee Stage. I understand there are over 300 pages of amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004.

My colleague, Deputy Jim O'Keeffe, has highlighted the danger that if one minor aspect of this Bill is found to be unconstitutional on foot of one challenge, the whole lot will go down the tubes. I hope that will not happen and that we will tease out any anomalies or difficulties on Committee Stage. I agree with Deputy Curran that every amendment, from all sides of the House, must be teased out fully and properly. This is defining legislation and it is so vast that it alludes to almost all criminal justice measures. There is no way I can do it justice in seven minutes except to talk in general terms. No other Member can do so and that is why Committee Stage is so important.

Yesterday the Irish Youth Justice Alliance made a very interesting presentation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, as I am sure the Minister is aware. The alliance made some interesting points about the Children Act 2001, which unfortunately has not been fully implemented. If it had been fully implemented and resourced, many of the measures now before the House might not be needed. The group stated that the provision in section 19 to extend the Garda diversion programme to include behaviour that is not criminal in nature is a serious extension of Garda powers to include the power to intervene in the lives of children and young people from the age of ten with respect to behaviour that is not criminal in nature.

The group went on to state that the formal extension of the programme had serious net-widening potential, given that it means that children who have not committed a criminal offence will be brought into formal contact with the Garda Síochána. It referred to the proposal in certain circumstances to remove or restrict a child's right to have his or her privacy protected when an anti-social behaviour order has been made. This involves an amendment to the right to privacy which children enjoy when before the Children's Court, and represents a weakening of children's rights as set out in the Children Act 2001. There are concerns over how children are treated.

Deputy Kelleher stated he went to Leicester. I was in Scotland last week where we had a discussion about ASBOs. ASBOs are used very carefully there. The Scots see them as a serious tool and it might be useful for us to consider the experience in Scotland also.

I welcome the provisions on firearms. It is frightening that criminals now seem to accept firearms as a first option. Some people go away and then come back with a gun and use it without thinking. They may not be able to think if they are high on cocaine. Deputy Kelleher is correct in stating that we must take the problem of cocaine very seriously. I am told that it is widely available and is driving a considerable amount of serious crime. The abuse of alcohol must also be addressed.

I welcome anything that would deal with organised crime. I am very concerned about the advent of mafia-style gangs here with international contacts. We need to be absolutely ruthless with those gangs. We have been waiting almost two years for the Criminal Justice Bill 2004. It will be months before the Bill can be enacted if all these elements are to be debated properly. The Minister should have introduced a number of smaller Bills rather than doing it as he has.

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