Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

No, I do not remember them all. However, members of the Government are still at their old arrogance. They never learn. They are as arrogant now as they ever were. They think they know everything, which is why we are in here tonight rushing through legislation. If I had my way, were it not for the recent approach by the spokesmen, I would have opposed the Bill tonight. I do not suggest it was wrong to correct the stupid mistake that was made. This was serious legislation. I want to put it into layman's terms because I am not a solicitor. This meant that we needed judges on call 24 hours a day whereas in the past a prison governor, who was a peace commissioner, could sign the documentation. I hope the departmental officials will be able to advise how much it cost the taxpayer to escort prisoners around the country looking for judges to sign documentation that could have been signed by a peace commissioner. I cannot believe the former Minister, who lectured the Opposition, the country and the Garda every day when he was in office, is making a fortune in the Four Courts finding loopholes in legislation he may have created himself. I hope the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Ceann Comhairle stop rushing and guillotining legislation in the House. How many times has legislation been rushed through which has had to be amended later? This is not the first time a Minister has had to return to the House to correct bad legislation.

A total of 24 committees with 24 chairmen, vice chairmen and convenors will be set up shortly. We will have a lot of talk at these committees and I hope when legislation is sent to the committees, Ministers and their officials will go through it so that simple provisions are not left out of serious legislation. If the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform or departmental officials worked in the private sector as chief executive of a company, they would be sacked. However, nobody will ever be sacked in Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil rewards those who make mistakes. It does not matter what kind of mistake a party member makes because he or she will be rewarded. Nobody takes responsibility or is accountable because they are always right. They are not right in this instance and they have cost the taxpayers a great deal of money.

The only reason the legislation is before the House is District Court judges contacted the Minister and his officials and told them to get their act together because they would not be available on Saturday and Sunday nights to sign a document that an ordinary peacemaker could sign. It was stupid legislation because it was rushed and I hope that will not happen again. I also hope the Minister, when taking legislation, will listen to the Opposition. I am glad he does not have the same temperament as his predecessor, who knew everything, and he was backed up by the Fianna Fáil backbenchers when he was wrong. He thought he was a god and he could never get anything wrong. I am sure we will be in this position again because he rushed a great deal of legislation through the House. His colleagues and friends in the Four Courts are going through that legislation and we will be back in the House to close other loopholes that were missed when the legislation passed through the House.

Deputies Flanagan and Rabbitte referred to legislation that has been introduced. While there is a great deal of legislation on the Statute Book, crime and murders have increased and we have no control over anti-social behaviour. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister last week regarding closed circuit television systems and the reply highlighted the measly amount spent by the Department on them and the number of towns that need such systems. Deputies Rabbitte and Flanagan mentioned crime in the cities but I assure them we have the same problems with anti-social behaviour in rural Ireland as people in Dublin and we do not have sufficient gardaí. We have plenty of Acts but the Garda does not have the manpower to deal with them. It is time resources and support were given to the Garda and that the legislation that is in place was implemented to restore law and order. We need more order than law because while we have never had as much law, we have never had less order.

I am glad the Minister is amending the stupid legislation that was enacted. We had a bright and eminent person on the Government benches who knew everything. When he rose in the morning, he could not be told anything on the Order of Business because he was right, he knew everything. Was it not simple legislation he introduced without a provision for a simple peace commissioner to sign the documents? Instead vans had to be escorted from prisons to appear before District Court judges on Saturdays and Sundays to sign documents that could have been signed by a peace commissioner and that cost the taxpayer a fortune. That does not show me there was a lot of brains on the Government benches in the last Dáil.

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