Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I agree with Deputy Costello on the matter of parental responsibility. I was Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs for five years, from 1997 to 2002. During that time I was aware of and involved in the build-up of community development projects around the country, and tried to assist disadvantaged geographic areas in particular. Many issues revolved around responses by multi-agency and non-governmental organisations to try and assist communities with problems such as the ones Deputy Costello enunciated.

Regarding community policing, I am heartened to see the number of community police is approximately 630, which is something most Deputies would accept is a good change from yesteryear, when gardaí were not as involved in local communities as they have been in recent years.

Deputy Costello raised the issue of overtime. I do not agree with him. In any police force, there must be an element of overtime in order to respond to particular events that can arise. Without it a response would not be possible. I do not agree that Operation Anvil should cease. One can earmark money specifically for it when one sees the difficulties in places such as Limerick and Dublin and where there needs to be a specific response over and above normal policing.

I do not have the figures on the division of handguns. A substantial number of the 2,200 guns seized under the operation were handguns. Operation Anvil is earmarked specifically to target organised crime. I do not have the figures with me but I can provide them if Deputy Costello tables a parliamentary question. In yesteryear, when crimes were committed by criminals using firearms, they used sawn-off shotguns. The advent and availability of the handgun in this country has made matters more difficult for the Garda and has reduced the number of sawn-off shotguns used in robberies.

The Garda Commissioner has said to me that the ability to conceal a handgun in a pocket or such like is a serious issue. It recently happened in Dublin, not far from Deputy Costello's area, that the Garda apprehended a person on a bicycle, whom it believed to be on his way to commit a murder and found a handgun strapped to the bicycle seat. If this House does not take some action, not only on illegal handguns as we have been doing, where we have given the Garda resources to act, but also on the proliferation of handguns generally, we would, as Mr. Justice Peter Charleton has said, be in dereliction of our duty.

I fully agree with Deputy Costello on the issue of parental responsibility. We introduced legislation on anti-social behaviour in 2006. Substantial data is available on its effectiveness. It takes time for it to become fully effective as a number of procedures must be gone through before ASBOs can be issued. Additional procedures apply specifically to children. From the beginning of March 2007 until the end of October this year, 907 warnings were issued to adults, 548 to children, 12 behaviour contracts were entered into between children and their parents and a number of applications were made for ASBOs. There are probably not as many as people would like but they must go through a procedure over time. Given this, I have no doubt the number of ASBOs will increase.

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