Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

What I am trying to do is provide protection to communities and persons who are adversely affected by anti-social behaviour. For the Minister to say I am trying to encourage the Garda to apply an ASBO to every child when three have been applied since the system was introduced is fantastic and ridiculous.

Is it not the case that the Minister committed to a range of measures in this area in the programme for government but that he has not implemented any of them? It is very easy to introduce legislation on ASBOs, in the same way it is easy to enact legislation in other areas. There is a commitment to providing a community pay-back scheme that will require offenders who are not subject to automatic long terms in prison to provide real services for communities they have damaged. Another commitment is to provide a system of parental responsibility for criminal damage. A further commitment is to create anti-social behaviour action teams. There is also a commitment to legislate to allow gardaí to issue restriction orders. There are 29 other commitments. Is the programme for government to have any credibility or is it just for the optics? The Minister has outlined a range of commitments but he has not implemented any of them.

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