Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I wish to deal briefly with four subjects, namely, terrorism, domestic and international; violent and armed crime and activities associated with that; anti-social behaviour; and the best use of the State's resources.

People are concerned about terrorism here and abroad where lives can be ended in a flash entirely without warning. The first rule is to express no complacency nor to assume that because we have escaped so far, thanks in large part to Garda vigilance, we will always escape in the future. Since the Omagh bomb, terrorist activity in this State has been negligible and everyone is grateful for the peace we now enjoy, and which has been consolidated, and the protection that has been provided.

I remain concerned, however, by the continued existence of dissident organisations not committed to ceasefires and not foreswearing all criminal activity, as we saw in regard to the INLA yesterday. I am also concerned by the procrastination of mainstream loyalist organisations in winding up their activities. Full decommissioning and disarmament should be pursued in regard to each and every one of these organisations.

I was shocked when, some time over the past year in an RTE repeat of a "Léargas" interview of 1997, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, president of Republican Sinn Féin, denounced "the poison of constitutionalism". I am pleased mainstream Sinn Féin has, in effect, in recent years in a post-Agreement context repudiated the poison of the Green Book, which Irish democracy has successfully refuted.

With regard to the danger of international terrorism, I deeply deplore the type of rhetoric used about ongoing conflict in Iraq. It almost appears to incite terrorism in regard to this country, which has not been in any way involved. I refer to individuals outside this House, rather than anyone in it. The use of Shannon Airport is fully justified by the UN resolution of June 2004, which asked member states to afford facilities to the multinational force. Many references are made in this House and elsewhere to an illegal war, which in my view exaggerates the clarity of international law, but few references are made to a criminal regime, even if the manner of overturning it was arguably ill-judged and the particular justifications put forward for doing so are ill-founded and disingenuous. We have a multicultural population, which we wish to live in harmony together. We have had enough of young Irish people growing up in this country, blowing up themselves or others, without wishing to see it ever happen again.

The incidence and impunity, where it seems to exist, of armed crime is seriously destabilising if not consistently confronted. While armed Garda units are essential, we should hold on to the principle of an unarmed police force, as that is the best way to cement solidarity and co-operation between the Garda and the people. Armed gangs may be putting their lives and certainly their freedom at risk, but there must be no suggestion from these Houses relating to the Garda that could be misrepresented as encouraging a shoot-to-kill policy. On the other hand, the aggressive advertisements which try to deter people from dangerous driving should be extended to other areas, showing the consequences and victims of crime, and then the consequences for convicted criminals. One could, for example, pose the question: "Do you want to spend the best years of your life in jail?"

There is obviously some correlation between poverty and crime. However, around 1960, crime was at a low ebb when everyone was much poorer. Today, it is the opportunities of enrichment, especially in the drugs trade, that attract people to crime. The call to legalise drugs is naive. The State would still have to police the content and standard of drugs, and open warfare between cartels trying to capture the trade. It goes without saying that if Members of this House are required not to smoke inside this building and not to evade taxes, we are certainly required as public representatives to uphold the law on the consumption of hard drugs, whatever any of us may have done in our youth.

The single most important initiative, which at least checked the trade, was the Criminal Assets Bureau, established on foot of an initiative in 1996 by Deputy John O'Donoghue and subsequently adopted by the then Minister, Deputy Nora Owen, following the murder of Veronica Guerin. I welcome the announcement of international co-operation against the importation of drugs by sea from Latin America. The international community could be doing much more to create incentives to stop the relevant plants being grown in the producer countries.

There is a shocking number of very often drug or drink-fuelled lethal attacks on individuals enjoying a night out.

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