Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Yesterday, we had an exchange in the House over what is happening on our streets, the problem with crime and the need to secure convictions. I drew attention to the fact that of the 161 gun murders in the State over the past ten years, there have been only 22 convictions. We are all agreed that to tackle crime effectively, cases must be brought before the court and prosecuted and the people responsible put away. There is a problem in the DPP's office. The Taoiseach's predecessor told me in the House last April that the office had 17 unfilled vacancies, which was before the Government applied its 3% cut. The DPP says the number of cases he is handling has increased by 6% and the Taoiseach's response is to cut his budget by 3%. The DPP's solution is to pass cases back to the Garda for prosecution in the District Court.

We, therefore, have two problems. First, the DPP's office is under resourced and he cannot do his job effectively, which means there is a greater prospect of criminals getting away with their crimes. Second, the DPP will ask the gardaí to spend their time sitting around the District Court waiting for cases to come up when they should be trying to detect those who committed the crimes in the first place. Will the Taoiseach stand over that or will he do something to deal with it? The DPP is a public servant and he has made public what is his difficulty. He has an increased caseload and a reduced budget, with which he cannot cope. He cannot do the job we all want him to and he says he will ask the Garda to deal with cases in the District Courts. That is no good to anybody. The DPP cannot to his job effectively and gardaí will be tied up hanging around court rooms waiting for cases to come up when they should be detecting crime.

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