Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with my colleague, Deputy Kieran O'Donnell and to refer, in the time afforded to me, to matters in the justice area. The importance this Government attaches to justice and crime matters was reflected in the Minister for Finance's speech yesterday. Not once, in a speech which ran to almost 8,000 words, did he refer to the justice budget. This was very surprising given that he recently served as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and a startling omission given the way crime is thriving in this country and having regard to the grave concerns that families and decent people have about matters of crime and justice.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, has taken the axe to Garda overtime. He has done so in the knowledge that incidents involving bombs and other explosive devices are up over 300% on last year. This year alone we have had 76 incidents involving pipe bombs and other dangerous devices. He has done so in the knowledge that the drugs trade continues to boom. The streets are awash with heroin and cocaine. If the rule of thumb that the Garda successfully intercepts 10% of the drugs that enter the State applies, we are in serious trouble. So far this year, the Garda has seized drugs worth €68 million. The sinister involvement of organisations such as the INLA in the drugs trade should sound a loud warning bell to the State. Organised criminals and criminal gangs cannot be given a free pass, irrespective of the downturn in the economic situation.

Gangland bosses and their associates are uncorking the champagne bottles and toasting the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the Garda overtime cuts that we are now facing. The Minister has chosen to cut overtime despite the obvious need for greater resources to rein in gangland criminals. This is obvious not only from the availability of drugs but also by an analysis of the steep rise in the number of shootings taking place year on year. The number of shootings jumped by 54% between 2003 and 2007, from 211 incidents to 325. In the first six months of 2008 there were 116 reported shootings. Estimates suggest there were 19 gangland-related killings in 2005, 21 in 2006,16 in 2007 and 15 so far in 2008. Meanwhile, knife crime has jumped over 300% in four years.

In this morning's newspapers it was reported that the Dublin County Coroner opened inquests into no less than eight violent gun deaths yesterday. Among the eight victims was apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell, an innocent bystander shot dead in a botched gangland attack. Anthony Campbell was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid the price with his life. How many more gruesome murders must take place before crime becomes relevant enough for a mention by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, in his budget speech?

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will argue that he has off-set taking a hatchet to the Garda overtime budget by providing more gardaí. Another way to express that argument is that he has given with one hand and taken back with the other. This country needs additional resources to combat crime. Organised crime costs this State a fortune every year in terms of deaths, drugs and prison sentences. Failing to tackle criminals by providing necessary resources is not a money-saving measure, irrespective of how the Government tries to spin it.

Ring fencing money for Operation Anvil is a welcome and sensible step, but it is not enough. Operation Anvil alone cannot address the criminality of gangland bosses. Maintaining and protecting resources for one single Garda operation is a flimsy response to the challenges that organised crime pose to this State.

Another area where the Minister is claiming he is saving money is in the prison sector. This is another false promise because reducing budgets as a short-term measure will cost us dearly in the long run. Let us look for a moment at the current situation in our prisons. The latest figures show that 50% of prisoners re-offend within four years of their release while 27% find themselves back behind bars within a year. The taxpayers of Ireland are spending €91,000 per prisoner per annum to maintain a revolving door prison system.

The Council of Europe anti-torture committee is one of a number of august bodies to express horror at the state of Ireland's prisons. Its most recent report on Irish prisons, published in October 2007, described a scenario where inter-prisoner violence was rife, fuelled by the widespread availability of illegal drugs and the existence of a gang culture within the prison system. Three prisons were singled out as being particularly dangerous in this context, namely, Limerick, Mountjoy and St. Patrick's Institution.

A report in this morning's newspapers detailed a violent attack in the State's most secure prison at Portlaoise. The prison governor was subjected to a series of threats and intimidation, culminating in a physical assault. In May this year it was reported that in Limerick Prison the number of prisoners who have had to be put into isolation for their own safety has trebled over the past two years. We hear about the lack of prison security on a weekly basis. This summer we heard it reported on the court record that a gangland boss continued to engage in his criminal empire building from behind prison bars.

The agreed programme for Government promises to "invest significantly in rehabilitation for prisoners". This is a promise that must be delivered on urgently. Last year 10,000 drugs tests were carried out in Irish prisons, 40% of which were positive. A total of 75% of prisoners in Mountjoy tested positive for drugs. There is widespread agreement that the situation in Mountjoy Prison, in terms of drug use, violence and violations of human rights, is totally unsustainable. Is the situation to be allowed to fester for the next 12 months and perhaps to worsen as a consequence of budget cuts?

Despite the lofty promises contained in the programme for Government, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, has already revealed his contempt for rehabilitation services. Before the budget was even agreed he slashed support services for ex-offenders, placing vulnerable men at risk of homelessness and addiction problems. He has withdrawn funding from Harristown House, a counselling and addiction centre at Castlerea, County Roscommon and from the Kazelain project in Sligo which provides accommodation for former offenders and homeless men. The grim consequences of these moves have been predicted by the experts and we are likely to pay the real price in the near future.

Cuts have been made to the prison sector at a time when health experts have called for the reform and expansion of prison psychiatric services following revelations that more than one in ten new male inmates has a psychiatric disorder and one in 20 is in need of transfer to a psychiatric institution.

The Minister may think that what happens within prisons is not a cause for concern to most people. However, it is hard working people and families who are always the victims of crime. It is hard-pressed taxpayers who are footing the bill for the dysfunctional Prison Service that the Minister presides over and I want to know what he proposes to do about it in 2009.

What is the fate of the Thornton Hall prison project, which has already cost the taxpayer almost €37 million? Thornton Hall is a perfect example of how wilful waste makes woeful want. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General concluded that the State paid "at least twice" the market value for the land when it stumped up €29.9 million to acquire the site.

Prison capital took a 10% cut in 2008, and received no increase in capital for 2009. The Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, recently stated there was no Plan B regarding Thornton Hall. I would like to know what is the status of Plan A. It is important to note that spending on existing prisons fell on the basis that Thornton Hall was proceeding. In the 2008 Estimates, the buildings and equipment budget was reduced by 44%.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, recently announced to great fanfare that he was rolling out the joint policing committees and expanding the programme from 29 to 114 committees throughout the State. Last year, €1 million was provided for the 29 committees. Is there provision for a pro rata increase to fund the additional 85 committees? I would like to hear the Minister's views on this when he addresses the matter later.

What about the Garda station building programme? What about the resources for community policing which is supposed to be a hallmark of Government policy in terms of increasing the visibility of the Garda force on the streets? This budget has shown us that tackling crime is far down the list of priorities for the Government.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, a master of spin, has attempted to twist the facts to disguise the short-sightedness and mean-spiritedness of his cuts. He has reduced Garda overtime just days after a key survey revealed that people are crying out for greater Garda visibility, with 75% of those surveyed wanting to see an improved Garda service by having more gardaí visible on the streets.

The Minister has cut funding to the Prison Service thereby perpetuating the cycle of crime. He has even cut the budget for the Irish Human Rights Commission, a body established under the Good Friday Agreement. I am sure he will outline in greater detail the particulars for the proposed merger of two bodies and the consequent dilution of power and influence of them both.

The consequences of these cuts will be shown in the fullness of time. I am confident the people will not be fooled. Despite the spin, they have seen this budget for what it is, an attack on decent hard-pressed people and they will see through the spin coming from the Department for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which is the same as that which we saw from the Minister for Education and Science earlier in the debate. The chickens have come home to roost. The Galway tent school of economics provided us with yesterday's budget which showed the Government has blown the boom in a most extraordinary fashion and the people have been given the bill to pay the price.

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