Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to take part in this timely debate. Next to economic matters, justice and law and order are very high on our agenda. We live in an era where crime is very much part of society. As Members of the Oireachtas, we have to respond and move with the dynamic nature in which the criminals carry out their evil acts. We have to keep ahead of them and implement laws that bring them to account.

We have to acknowledge the fine work that is done by the vast majority of our State agencies who are involved in law enforcement. That is not just the Garda Síochána, but agencies such as the Revenue Commissioners, the Customs Service, the Probation Service and so on.

Gangland activity is not exclusive to the capital and we have experienced it in my part of the country. Unfortunately and for all the wrong reasons, we know too much about it. However, it is fair to acknowledge that we have responded to the activities of the gangland people by bringing a number of amendments to our criminal justice legislation. It is positive to note that there are several files before the DPP on these activities, so hopefully we will see positive results flowing from that.

Every citizen in this country has such an important part to play. All too often people say that the law enforcement agencies are not doing enough and there are not enough gardaí and community police. We know that there are 14,500 gardaí and we can argue about statistics and numbers, but we cannot have people at every crossroads or every street corner. There is an obligation on every citizen to play their part. Unfortunately, there are members of society who do not do so. They fail to pass on information or assist our law enforcement agencies. It behoves all of us to encourage those people to get involved.

I am a member of the joint policing committee in Limerick. It is a very useful forum and the interaction it brings to bear between Oireachtas Members, local representatives and the Garda Síochána is very good. We need to drill down further in this kind of local forum where people can interact and bring in more outside people. At our last meeting on the Limerick division, most of the headline areas experienced reductions in the levels of crime for 2009. The number of homicide offences was down by 17%. Assault causing harm was down by 17% as well. Minor assaults decreased by 8%. Harassment and related offences had a decrease of 23%. Burglary bucked the trend with an increase of 7%.

I represent a rural community in County Limerick. If a person commits a crime such as a burglary and is sentenced in court for that crime, we should look at taking that person's driving licence away after serving the prison term, if that is what the court decides, because burglars use transport as part of the crime, so when they are released from prison they should lose their right to travel the roads. These roaming gangs that commit the burglaries are terrorising our local communities.

Returning to the crime levels in Limerick, theft was up by 2%, while controlled drug offences was also up. Discharge of firearms was down by 21%, criminal damage was down by 9% and public order had a slight increase of 2%. I acknowledge the work done by members of the Garda Síochána in the Limerick Garda division, which covers three districts in the county and two in the city. As public representatives we tried to assist them and they have been very helpful to us. I acknowledge their input.

See this speech in context