Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, once announced that he would be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, but we do not hear much talk from him about the causes of crime these days. We do not hear much talk about the causes of crime from Fine Gael either. In the advertisements for Fine Gael, Deputy Kenny states that he will make the criminals pay for their crimes. What about the causes of crime and what about the Fine Gael of a generation ago? What happened to the caring and compassionate ethos that characterised Fine Gael some 30 years ago? What about the renaissance in Fine Gael that took place under Garret Fitzgerald? Under his leadership, the party sold itself as a liberal, progressive and dynamic party. Back then, it reached out to all classes in Irish society. It reached out to the vulnerable, the dispossessed, the marginalised and those who had been affected by crime.

I worry that at the moment Fine Gael is more interested in being tough on crime than being tough on the causes of crime. The Daily Telegraph would be happy with this Bill but reasonable people will realise that we must also look at the other side of the coin and deal with the causes of social exclusion, drug use and crime in Irish society.

On Deputy Kenny's first day in the Dáil, when he was aged 24, he spoke to a huge crowd of supporters outside Leinster House. In his speech, he said that he believed in the greatest good for the greatest number. That is good enough but he must also deal with those who have been marginalised, not just the victims of crime but those who commit crime. It is a brave and courageous step to address this. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have not gone far enough. The RAPID programme is well-intentioned but it has not received the attention and funding and produced the results that it should have. After nine years of unparalleled economic growth, we must also deal with the social issues.

I know that the Fine Gael leader has been portrayed by his handlers as the sheriff rolling into town to deal with the baddies. However, I suspect that he has a caring, gentler and more compassionate side so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I suspect that if one scratches the surface, one will find a man who is truer to the Fine Gael ethos of the early 1980s than one might be led to believe.

I call on Fine Gael not simply to grab the headlines with the image of the sheriff rolling into town but to address the underlying causes of crime. I suspect we are all agreed on many issues. We agree that we want more gardaí on the beat and more community gardaí. We want these community gardaí to serve in neighbourhoods for longer and have greater continuity rather than be shifted off to a new area without anyone being informed. We want more drug rehabilitation, more education and a greater emphasis in our prison system on rehabilitating people so that they can play a constructive role in our society. We want more investment in RAPID areas, not just in training and education but also in the physical fabric, green spaces, sporting facilities and facilities for children and lone parents. We need all these things. I urge Fine Gael to spend more time emphasising these issues and ensure that we create a better society, rather than simply lock up criminals.

I worry about the thrust of this Bill and that, in the wrong hands, it would lead to violence and damage being perpetrated to an excessive degree. The Government's critique of the Bill last night is in many ways valid.

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