John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I compliment Deputy Flanagan on this very important motion. I welcome the opportunity to speak on it, which calls on the Government to implement a comprehensive set of proposals to tackle serious crime in this State. In particular, it calls on the Government to launch a co-ordinated approach to tackling organised criminal gangs.

I offer my sympathy to the family and friends of the late Mr. Shane Geoghegan, whose killing is another example of a murderous attack on the citizens of this State. What is going on in some of our cities has many of the features of a war between criminal gangs and between the gangs and society. In some respects it looks like a war in some underdeveloped region of Africa, complete with well-armed boy soldiers. These gangs have no regard for human life or citizens going about their daily lives and they certainly have no respect for the Government and its Executive agencies.

This is a war which the Government is not winning. Over the last few years we have seen the murders of several innocent people and many gangland criminals. Our crime problem has grown progressively more serious and drugs continue to flood into the country, providing income for these gangs. Having failed to make any significant inroads into their activities, the Government must now take decisive action to put them out of business.

So what do we know of this war? We know the participants on all sides, including the gangs, their leaders and their members. In the case of the latest murder of an innocent man, the newspapers tell us that the Garda know who ordered it, who carried it out, how they did it, how they travelled to and from the crime scene, where the killers went after the murder and where they are now. They know where these gang members were born, where they grew up, to whom they are related, with whom they associate and where they live and where they go on holidays. The newspapers themselves, in so many words, tell that they know all this as well. It is an absurd position, as we know virtually everything about these gang members and their activities and yet it seems this Government can do virtually nothing to stop them.

If it was the case that the perpetrators of this murder were simply throwing stones at each other and an innocent bystander was hit and injured, our justice system could do something about stopping this anti-social behaviour. Existing legislation provides a mechanism through the ASBO procedure to stop a person from behaving in a way which is causing harassment, alarm and distress to a local community or person in that community. The Garda makes an application to the court and the ASBO is granted by a District Court judge on the balance of probabilities. Deliberately breaching an ASBO can lead to a criminal prosecution and serious penalty. The ASBO procedure tells the minority that disrupting and terrorising the lives of others will not be tolerated by citizens.

The fact that these gangs continue to grow and expand their influence and control over local communities tells us that the Government's response to date is inadequate. We need an all-out assault on the lawlessness that blights some communities. We need to break the power of these organised crime gangs.

Mr. John Fitzgerald, the former Dublin city manager, produced a report on what needs to happen if Limerick city is to be rescued from the present cycle of violence. He identified a long-term sociological and economic strategy and I wish the new agencies established to implement this approach every success.

Mr. Fitzgerald's report has one key reservation in that before anything good can happen in Limerick, the lawlessness must end. He states:

Standard approaches to policing are simply not sufficient to cope with the nature and level of the problems being experienced, yet dealing with the serious (although relatively small in number) criminal elements operating in these areas will be fundamental to facilitating the majority of ordinary citizens trying to live their lives in peace and safety.

This is the immediate problem and it must be met head on.

The Government response to this latest atrocity is, so far at least, too soft and easy. These criminal gangs represent a threat to the State and democracy and they cannot be combated effectively by laws that are designed for a normal society. We need new and powerful well-targeted measures. What we need now are a series of tough measures to deprive these criminals of their ability to commit future crimes. We must focus on prevention and pre-emptive actions as much as convictions after a crime.

In the case of anti-social behaviour, the ASBO procedure gives the court the power to make an open-ended order which restricts the actions and behaviour of the individual. The court has discretion as to the nature and breadth of the conditions attached to the ASBO and it can prohibit people from using certain language or words. I call on the Minister to take decisive action in this major crisis.

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