Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I have an original idea which I feel would be of benefit in the fight against crime. A regional version of the Criminal Assets Bureau should be established throughout the country. The John Gilligans of tomorrow could be tackled now and brought to justice before they become the crime lords of the future. Sufficient information exists in the public domain to tackle them. Many are home owners with no obvious source of income who claim social welfare from the State. How can these people own property when they have no earning capacity? How can they be allowed to benefit from the ill-gotten proceeds of criminality?

The limited resources available to CAB means it must target its energies towards selected criminals. No Member of the House could disagree with that, but an extended CAB with regional links would help to tackle serious crime in its infancy outside major urban areas. In such areas, gardaí are expected to deal with the likely perpetrators, but they are stretched beyond a reasonable capacity. In County Wexford, there are less gardaí on the beat than in the past, yet from 1996 to 2006, the population of Gorey has almost doubled. Courtown was once a sleepy seaside village yet it has doubled in population in the same period. Further problems have arisen because of the number of holiday homes in the area, and the transient population is practically impossible to police. Members of major criminal gangs lie low there because the region is so difficult to police. As Deputies Reilly and Áine Brady said, tens of thousands of people are living in expanding areas, but there is no Garda presence, apart from a few gardaí who show up now and again. If local resources were made available to hire personnel with accountancy skills, local intelligence would come into its own to protect our communities from these leeches in society. I know who the main players are in my area of County Wexford. Most Members know who such people are in their areas. Members of the Garda Síochána know who they are and so do local newspapers, but we are not making funding available to deal with this problem because the people concerned are not the Slab Murphys or John Gilligans of organised crime.

The connection between drug abuse and criminality cannot be discounted. If the drug culture is curtailed then associated criminality, whether involving petty crime or physical violence, will also decrease. The regional CAB should have appropriate resources and protection to deal with the Gilligans and Murphys of the underworld. Costs incurred in extending and developing a regional CAB will be recouped by society in the short term and will hopefully protect the next generation from the tragedies of drug crime.

I welcome the Minister's position on the JLO scheme, but this must happen immediately. Future benefits will accrue from influencing the younger generation now and, thus, the cost of the scheme will be recouped many times over. The largest schools should have dedicated JLO officers. Gorey community school is the largest second level facility in the country with 1,700 pupils. One JLO officer dedicated to that school would be of huge benefit.

Approximately €1 million has been made available for capital funding for individual crèche facilities. When children move on to primary school, however, the same facilities are not provided. Meanwhile, paltry sums of €150,000 are made available for community development associations. We should be establishing four or five crèches in every district.

I am passionate about protecting our younger children. Earlier this year the Garda Síochána was ordered to pay compensation of €70,000 after a convicted sex offender was found to be staying with a family in Kerry. However, the compensation was not paid to any of his victims, it was paid to the family with whom he was staying. That is an absolute disgrace, but it was done on the basis of privacy. The Garda Síochána has been denied a legal framework which exists in US legislation where it is known as Megan's law. It could work in Irish law, but I would prefer if such a law was not named after a dead child as is the case in the United States. I hope we will act now before one of our children becomes a victim of this gaping deficit in our legal system.

See this speech in context