Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The Fine Gael Party motion is timely. There are serious concerns about gangland crime that demand a full response. In fairness to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, much good work is being done. The number of gardaí is at an historic high of 14,500, which is good. A total of €29 million has been invested in prison places and there is record funding for the Criminal Assets Bureau and for Operation Anvil.

The mandatory penalty for murder is life imprisonment, and for manslaughter the penalty is up to life. The existing policies mean that those convicted of gangland gun murders are serving their full sentences in accordance with the law. No prisoner convicted of such murders has been released early by the current Minister or his immediate predecessors.

There has been a two thirds increase in funding between 2007 and 2009 for gardaí specifically assigned to community policing. The Criminal Assets Bureau has had some outstanding successes in seizing nearly €7.5 million of the proceeds of crime and collecting just over €6 million in taxes and interest in 2008. For a return on investment, the CAB is doing great work in tackling these thugs. The ongoing development within the Garda Síochána of the asset profile network is providing vital local knowledge to the CAB.

I share in the condemnation of gangland crime and I agree with the Minister's proposal to target seriously criminal gangs over the next year, such as hijackings and warehouse robberies. His proposal makes sense. There are areas in which we need improvement and I pay tribute to Kathleen O'Toole's recent report that highlighted the need to up our game substantially in respect of the use of information technology by the Garda. I am not a great fan of the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani's fiscal policies, but I admire the extent to which he used information technology to target crime. He used crime mapping and real-time information. He allocated police on the basis of where crimes were likely to occur and had occurred in the past. Given the slow development of the Garda computer network, people are reluctant to invest more, but I would urge that we spend much more on information technology. It will reap results. Kathleen O'Toole's report called for a national computer aided despatch system, and it would make sense to gather data better and plan resources. It will free up members of the force and get them out on the beat, which makes sense.

There are more gardaí walking the streets at the moment, and the best asset of the force is its eyes and ears. I know that in Dún Laoghaire this approach is not only solving crime, it is also preventing crime from happening and long may that continue. However, we need a belt and braces approach. We need community policing, eyes and ears, and state-of-the-art computer technology. That will happen and Kathleen O'Toole's report makes it much easier.

I have one small criticism of the Fine Gael Party motion. I am very critical of mandatory sentencing. The Judiciary is very experienced when deciding on what is appropriate. We are tying its hands with mandatory prison sentences. It does not make sense to me, but the intent behind the motion is commendable and it provides all of us with a common cause in fighting crime.

See this speech in context