Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The council blocked access to the site. My point is that if it really was so easy for gardaí to address the problem, then they would have done so. The Minister of State has referred repeatedly to the force's position on this issue, but the reality is that the Garda did not have the law behind it in this case. The only way to deal with the issue was to block access to the site. Of course, blocking access to public parks is not a desirable solution. We should not be making it more difficult for parents with prams, for example, to walk through the gates of public amenities. We should be seeking to ensure that people who want to play football at the weekend can do so. There should not be a situation, as other Deputies referred to, where people turn up to find the pitch destroyed. Public moneys are being pumped into these parks to maintain playing surfaces and so on, only to have them destroyed by motorbikes or, on one occasion in my constituency, a car. In that instance the council had spent a fortune upgrading two pitches but on the weekend they were due to be opened, a car was driven into the park and destroyed them both. Local football teams and local communities are suffering the impact of this type of activity.

The response from the Garda at local level to these events is that its hands are tied. The purpose of this legislation is to untie the hands of gardaí, so they can go in and confiscate the vehicles that are causing the problem and pursue the people who are engaged in this type of vandalism. Gardaí must have the capacity to take action against the owners of the quads, motorcycles, scramblers and other vehicles that are causing damage and creating a noise nuisance, right through the night in some cases. The problem is especially acute around Christmas time, when people receive these vehicles as presents. Young people are putting themselves and others in dangerous situations because the vehicles are being driven at breakneck speed through public areas. That is what the Bill seeks to address. It is not about trying to deal with the problem in the way it was dealt with in Clonmel, because that was a private park and it was possible to block access to it. I am aware of other areas in south Tipperary in which this problem has arisen and has not been fully addressed. I am sure gardaí in south Tipperary would love to have the powers Deputy Ellis is proposing to give them to confiscate the vehicles in question.

This issue has been an ongoing problem for several years now and any step we can take to address it is welcome. Some local authorities might be able to take imaginative action, as was done in Clonmel and in certain instances by South Dublin County Council, for example, but they should not be obliged to create new by-laws to address the problem. What we need is an overarching law, which is what Deputy Ellis's Bill will provide. The Deputy has acknowledged that his proposals might not be the final word on the issue. That is why he has asked that the Bill be sent to the committee where there will be an opportunity to invite local authority members, gardaí and so on in to discuss it.

The Minister of State indicated that the Garda has a certain view on this matter. I would be interested to know the view of the Attorney General, which is what is usually referenced by Ministers in this Chamber. Anybody who attends meetings of any joint policing committee in this city or throughout the country will conclude that the view of gardaí, in fact, is that there is a need for this legislation. Gardaí are not seeking new laws for the sake of having new laws. They are seeking change because this particular problem is one of the issues that is raised most often in local policing fora. Gardaí have repeatedly stated that this change is required because, without it, their hands are tied. Even the Minister with responsibility for this area, who is not in the Chamber today, has acknowledged the need for action, in a context where public parks are designated in a way that makes it difficult for An Garda Síochána to confiscate vehicles and prosecute those involved in this type of activity.

I appeal to the Minister of State to reconsider his position. Opposing this measure would be a retrograde step. I urge him instead to allow it to progress and be a mechanism by which the transport or justice committee can examine the issue in full and perhaps determine whether there is any additional mechanism to prevent the type of abuse of our public spaces we have seen. The people who engage in this behaviour have no regard for their own community, other road users or the users of public amenities. In many ways, they have no regard for themselves - after all, these are dangerous vehicles being operated in a dangerous way. It is something that happens quite regularly in my own area of Dublin South-Central and is raised by constituents on a continuous basis. I urge the Minister of State to get real and recall when he was on this side of the House, not so long ago, appealing to Ministers to allow the Garda Síochána to take the type of action to tackle anti-social behaviour that Deputy Ellis has proposed.

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