Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Why does the Minister always shelter behind "the gardaí should be commended" as if somebody over here is criticising gardaí? On the last day the Minister said the Secretary General is an honourable man. Of course he is. Can we leave that out and deal with anti-social behaviour? The Minister's argument would have some validity if anti-social behaviour was not as widespread as it is at present. Does the Minister know the extent of anti-social behaviour, or is he too far from the real world? Does he know the extent to which ordinary communities are tortured by the behaviour of youths out of control creating mayhem in their areas?

I will write to the Minister about the case I instanced if he will promise he might do something for me. In that case their car has been significantly damaged three times. That is not an unusual case. Anti-social behaviour is a much more complex phenomenon than ASBOs. The sequencing the Minister talked about and the reluctance of the Garda to make it work exposes the fact that the mechanism is having minimal or no impact on the scale of the problem, especially in working class communities.

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