John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Gerard Murphy, for giving way to allow me speak on the Bill. I welcome the Bill. Most speakers have focused on the provisions to create a legal services ombudsman. I believe members of the legal profession will welcome this. They understand that self-regulation of their profession is damaging them and they need this new procedure.

Deputy Twomey mentioned the relevance of legislation. He referred to the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey's speech and his comment that the rule of law is universally regarded as one of the foundation elements of a properly organised society. What I will say in my contribution will go some way towards proving that what we do in this House is, in some cases, wasting society's time. Some of the legislation we pass is utterly useless and the time we spend putting it together is a complete waste.

I can offer an example. I have figures, which have not previously been published, to demonstrate what I mean. The first legislation taken on by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on taking office was one he inherited from his predecessor, Deputy O'Donoghue, the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 2003. This Act essentially provided for two courses of action, closure orders and exemption orders. A closure order could be sought when an application was made by the Garda to a court asking that a premises be shut down if that premises was continually a source of trouble. The Act also permitted exclusion orders for where an individual was constantly causing trouble in a particular area. The order would exclude that person from the premises or location.

Three years after the Bill was enacted I secured the relevant numbers from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, after asking for them for about a year. Five closure orders have been made nationally. With regard to exclusion orders, the figure is the big goose egg of zero. It was absolutely worthless legislation. It was the first legislation from the current Minister and, frankly, it is not worth the paper on which it is written.

At the time I called it Mickey Mouse legislation, but in retrospect, I probably did a disservice to the memory of Mickey Mouse by characterising it in that way. Mr. Mouse would probably have written better legislation than the Bill we faced three years ago. I and other members of the Opposition, as well as some members of the Government parties, tried to tell Ministers that they had missed the point. The point was the use of alcohol and drugs. It was not about passing measures such as that Act but about dealing with the situation on the ground.

I am trying to tie this issue to the headlines we see in the newspapers every day. There was another headline in today's Irish Examiner. According to that newspaper the amount of cocaine, crack and ecstasy being used in Cork and Kerry has increased fourfold in the past eight years. The war on drugs is being lost. When the head of the Garda inspectorate, who is the former chief of the Boston police department, intimates, even though she qualified her statement, that there is a possibility the gardaí could be armed at some point in the future, it is an indication that the war has been badly lost in this area.

What can we do about it with regard to legislation? Time and again over the past four years we have heard Ministers talking about the action that would be taken, be it tightening up of the measures dealing with mandatory sentences for people carrying a certain amount of drugs or mandatory sentences for carrying a firearm.

They have all been fudges, particularly the last Criminal Justice Bill. It made out that it was providing for a mandatory minimum sentence for the carrying of an illegal firearm when judges would probably sidestep that very easily just as they have the Criminal Justice Act 1997 when it comes to mandatory sentencing for drugs.

Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a senior garda. I asked him about the situation on the ground. He said it was fairly quiet apart from drugs. It was a very curious statement. He essentially said the situation in regard to drugs was completely off the scale, although generally he was able to deal with the levels of crime. It reminded me of a comment made by the former mayor of Washington DC, Marion Barry. He said the levels of crime in Washington DC were not that bad if one did not count the killings.

If this House is to be relevant — I have given an example of complete irrelevance — one must look at one area, namely, the Judiciary. In the past four years absolutely no attempt has been made to enforce a minimum sentence in the area of drugs and everything surrounding them. There have been fudges all the way. The problem is that our tolerance of the level of crime and drug use on the streets has increased. Our standards have dropped in regard to what we are able to take and are willing to put up with.

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