Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Has the anti-social behaviour order mechanism not been a failure? Given the scale of anti-social behaviour in so many of our communities, to talk about three civil and three behaviour orders being issued is absurd. So many of our communities are tortured by anti-social behaviour and people are targeted because they are vulnerable. Anybody who is different, older people, women living alone and people from diverse backgrounds are targeted. Last Saturday, I had a case in my clinic of two persons from two eastern European countries. They are married and the young woman is pregnant. They have been selected for persecution and targeted for harassment in the estate where they live in a local authority house they purchased through the tenant purchase scheme. They are in desperation. They can see no way out of this problem. The ASBO is a failed mechanism and has no impact, and we should begin by admitting that.

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