Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

There is an obvious and urgent need to restrict the availability of alcohol and to tackle underage drinking in particular. We are now waiting for yet more recommendations from more reports from more consultative bodies while previous expert reports remain unimplemented at the hands of the present Government.

In respect of the availability of drugs in this country, the Government's record is nothing short of disgraceful. An excellent "Prime Time Investigates" documentary found traces of cocaine in over 90% of clubs, pubs and workplaces it surveyed throughout the country. While the gardaí and customs officers have worked exceptionally hard to intercept drugs before they make their way onto our streets, they are being seriously hampered in their work by the State's intransigent refusal to fund properly customs and excise operations. We have one lone patrol vessel to monitor 4,300 km of coastline. At our ports, we have the absolutely farcical situation where our sole X-ray scanner must move from port to port on a rotating basis to facilitate random checks. Gardaí believe that well-organised crime gangs simply monitor movement of the scanner to avoid detection of drug shipments. At our smaller airports, standards are shockingly lax, with the Government arguing it is simply not cost-efficient to put proper customs facilities in place there.

If the Customs and Excise Service could make 2,700 drugs seizures valued at €139 million in 2007 with the help of a few sniffer dogs, one X-ray machine and one boat, what could it achieve if it was properly resourced? The Minister for Finance has recently committed to one extra boat and one extra scanner to be introduced during the next four years. Why does the Government refuse to sanction adequate facilities? Why must it always be the half-hearted, half-measure rather than a decisive, appropriate, courageous solution? Two scanners cannot cover every port and two boats cannot patrol an entire coastline. If the Minister is serious about stemming the flow of drugs into this country, the Government needs to invest at the coalface, in our ports and airports, in a serious endeavour to cut supply.

Tonight I am calling for a number of specific measures to address the rise in the number of offensive weapons, especially knifes, and in anti-social behaviour. Fine Gael believes that the Government must complete, as a matter of urgency, a comprehensive review of the availability of knives and offensive weapons. While the Minister may argue that the legislation is robust, the reality is that it is still possible to walk into a shop, purchase a samurai sword over the counter for €50 and an array of other deadly weapons. This easy availability facilitated a brutal attack in Finglas in January when a man's hand was sliced off in a public house in full view of all the other customers. At that time Fine Gael, for the second time, requested a legislative amendment to ban the sale, possession or importation of such swords but the Minister did not want to know. We may have a long list of prohibited weapons in the 1991 legislation but is the Minister confident that this legislation is being robustly enforced? Can he honestly say that the Garda Síochána is sufficiently resourced to enforce existing legislative provisions?

Second, Fine Gael believes it is imperative that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, takes steps to bring about a significant increase in the number of community gardaí. The experts agree that community policing must be the cornerstone of Irish policing. More important, community policing is what the people want. All of us in this House are aware from listening to the views of our constituents that community policing not only makes neighbourhoods safer places, but serves an important psychological function of making neighbourhoods feel safer for their residents.

Fine Gael has produced a comprehensive policy on community policing and suggests a number of ways in which it can be made a reality. These include the introduction of a special grade of community garda to make community policing an attractive career option, unlike what the Minister said today, "Ah, well, all gardaí are community gardaí". This is not so. Fine Gael wants the provision of longer-term assignments for community gardaí to allow them to really get to know the community. This would allow them live in the community and mingle, work and network in the community. Fine Gael wants the introduction of incentives to encourage gardaí to live in the community they serve and the involvement of the community in policing through community councils and fora.

Community gardaí are absolutely essential to stemming the tide of anti-social behaviour. If we want safe communities and safer streets, we must embed gardaí within them. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Power, to use his influence with the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to embrace community policing and take concrete steps to make it a reality.

More urgently, however, Fine Gael is calling on the Government to mount a targeted six-month operation to take knives out of communities. Experience has shown that the most effective Garda operations have been well-resourced strategic programmes with specific goals.

As this House is aware, Operation Anvil was set up to target gangs in Dublin and selected areas around the State. In its first 18 months, Operation Anvil resulted in the seizure of 573 firearms, almost 5,000 arrests and the recovery of almost €15 million in property. The Minister now speaks of incorporating a dimension on knives into Operation Anvil while, at the same time, there are reports that funding for that project is to be cut. Meanwhile, the policing plan for 2008, which is welcomed by Fine Gael, includes provision for a publicity campaign directed against the carrying of knives. This is simply not enough. Information campaigns are not sufficient. Those targeted by Operation Anvil are, in my view, not the same target group as those who carry knives. They are not the same target group as those who murdered Pawel Kalite and Mariusz Szwajkos. As I stated earlier, 2007 witnessed the highest number of murders in the State since its foundation. It was a year in which the number of fatal stabbings and knife assaults rose exponentially, a year in which stabbings accounted for almost half of homicides. It is not good enough to react to these developments by simply tagging knife crime onto the end of Operation Anvil's terms of reference. We need a specific, targeted response, a separate special operation.

Fine Gael is proposing a six-month operation that would involve dedicated officers, concentration on areas with high incidents of assault and serious anti-social behaviour, use of legislative provisions to stop and search and arrest and charge suspects and the introduction of additional mobile units for the specific use of this new operation.

Across the water, the British Government has made a serious commitment to eradicating knife crime. Police in the UK have been told to prosecute anyone caught with a knife. Two years ago, a major campaign aimed at tackling knife crime was launched in the North. This campaign included an amnesty period; new legislation to raise the legal age for purchasing a knife from 16 to 18; an information campaign; and a targeted stop and search and arrest and charge policy.

Meanwhile, the best the Minister can come up with is an information campaign which has not even started and an addendum to Operation Anvil. This is simply not good enough. The primary function of any Government is to provide for the safety and security of its people. The right to feel safe in one's home and one's community is a fundamental right of the citizen in a democracy. These rights are not being vindicated by this Government. The Minister has a duty to protect the citizens of this State against those who seek to intimidate, maim and kill. It is time to get tough on weapons-wielding thugs. Fine Gael has proposed three ways forward tonight. I sincerely hope the Minister will abandon partisanship and take our recommendations on board. He owes it to the people of Ireland to take decisive and courageous action and to take it now.

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