Margaret Conlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I condemn totally the brutal murder of Shane Geoghegan. In County Monaghan on Saturday, 20 October 2007, we had a similar barbaric crime in the butchering of an innocent victim, Paul Quinn. I raised it as an Adjournment matter the following week and there were statements on it in this House in February. Tonight we focus once again on a similar barbaric crime. How long can this carnage continue? These senseless brutal killings appear to settle down and then flare up again every few months. Have we broken down, as a nation and a society?

Society has serious questions to answer. The girls doing a quick line of cocaine to keep themselves going on a night out, or the lads smoking a cannabis joint to chill out, are the very people who are fuelling these gangs, their turf wars and gangland crime in general. If these people did not have customers, and a growing number of them, for their goods, we would not be where we are. Individuals most show their social responsibility in a collective way. People can no longer afford the luxury of tut-tutting as they watch the news before turning around and indirectly fuelling this lifestyle. We expose our fellow citizens to a fatal game of Russian roulette, of life and death, where being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or saying the wrong thing to the wrong people at the wrong time, means that a person ends up being murdered.

The issue of familial responsibility is fundamentally interwined with this. Most people can become parents easily and they reap the glorious benefits that children bring into their lives. However, serious responsibilities come with this. Crimes are being committed by minors, by people under the age of 18 years. I said in this House before, and am happy to repeat it, that if children are not at home, their parents should know where they are, who they are with, and what they are doing. I make no apology for saying that. People in our society, men and women, who believe in parenting by proxy, via the high stool in a bar or via a PlayStation, are neglectful of the child and they damage society. From a very early age, some of our young people are exposed to violence. Shooting their victims in a PlayStation game is a normal fun thing to do.

The majority of contemporary crime concerns drugs, whether drug running, drug taking or drug selling. The key, therefore, to solving the crisis in crime is to solve our drugs crisis. Urban rejuvenation, such as we see in the Limerick southside and northside regeneration agencies, is the slow process that will reap benefits in the future.

However, while that is a long-term matter, we must get tough in the short term and get these unrepentant bullies, drug dealers and crime barons off the streets. People know who killed Shane Geoghegan just as people know who killed Paul Quinn. However, with witnesses fearing for their lives, evidence will continue to emerge in order to get convictions for these heinous murders. I commend the Garda Síochána and the PSNI in respect of their valiant efforts in trying to secure a conviction in the case of Paul Quinn.

We must broaden the scope of the Special Criminal Court in order to take on these thugs, and I make no apology for calling them thugs. I am most heartened that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, informed the Garda Commissioner that any additional assistance needed will be provided, whether by legislation or through resources, in order to deal with the Limerick criminal gangs. I expected nothing less of them.

I welcome the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, who outlined his proposals to ban licensed handguns. The Minister said that the handgun ban would be included in legislation currently being prepared, which will be published shortly. I am pleased that he explicitly stated his central concern must be the protection of the public, particularly in view of the level of gun crime.

I am a mother of three young children. If we were to be subjected to another Dunblane-type incident, or if stolen legal handguns were to be used to kill more innocent people, I would have failed in my duty as a national legislator. In my view, the Minister is acting swiftly and decisively, and I hope the Bill passes quickly through the House.

The memory of the callous murder of Shane Geoghegan, or that of Paul Quinn in my own constituency, must not be allowed fall from the front pages and fade out of focus in respect of what we, as national legislators, must do to tackle these criminal gangs. I extend my sympathies to the family and friends of the late Shane Geoghegan. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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