Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach is a great man for quoting statistics to suit his purposes. He regularly regales us with invidious comparisons between the time he took up office in 1997 and today, particularly in respect of economic matters. However, I remind him that when he entered office, he did so on the promise of zero tolerance of crime, yet the country is now being asked to tolerate levels of crime that are far higher than they were when he entered office.

The Taoiseach stated many of the crimes, particularly gang-related crimes, are linked to the drugs trade. He is correct that many of the crimes are now international and that much border-hopping is being done by criminals. However, in this age surveillance technology should be capable of identifying criminals, the nature of their activities and putting them behind bars. We have recently seen convictions being secured on the basis of tracking the locations of mobile phones. It is with this in mind that the Labour Party has proposed to the Government a number of measures to secure convictions, including the improvement of the powers of surveillance of gardaí and the use of their discoveries in court. These powers would be complemented by witness protection programmes so the criminals will not be able to avoid justice and slip off to the sun or wherever they go to live off the proceeds of their crimes.

This is an area in which the Government has not delivered on its promises. I do not want to continue to blame the Government for this but we need to see more action and urgency. In this regard, the proposals for legislation and on community policing have been on the table for some time and I would like to see some action by the Government to deliver on them.

See this speech in context