Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is again reverting to type and he is trying to play the man rather than the issue. The business community in this town has extended an invitation to the Minister to step out of his ivory tower, to walk down O'Connell Street and the side streets off O'Connell Street, to take a trip on the Luas, to walk along the boardwalk and to witness what is going on. There is no point in being in denial about it and trying to throw it back at me by saying that I am being alarmist. I am articulating what I have been told factually and I am not making it up. The Minister may quote statistics and I agree they are trending in the right direction. He should move away from trying to play politics with the issue. He should come out of his ivory tower, step out of his Department and bring some of his officials with him, the guys who would not go down and talk to the GRA. He should step out into the real world and take a look at it. He might educate himself and he might come to realise that what we are saying is the case. We are not playing politics with the issue and we are legitimately raising it here.

My question to the Minister about the recruitment process for the Garda Commissioner is linked and is relevant. I will ask him another related question about gangland behaviour because members of An Garda Síochána are targeted. A bomb was laid at the door of a garda in Leitrim. Members of An Garda Síochána have been assaulted. The GRA has reported up to 1,000 assaults. My party tabled a Bill to provide for a minimum mandatory sentence of five years for anyone who seriously assaults an emergency worker and the Government rejected the Bill. The Minister said at the time that the Government intended to bring forward proposals. What will the Minister do to protect the Garda Síochána against assaults by gangland people and figures and by those engaged in criminality?

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