Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Anti-social behaviour is eating away at the heart of some of our communities and causing misery for families trapped in certain neighbourhoods. I am thankful to the Minister for Justice and Equality for being here.

This is not an issue that the actions of a single Minister can combat sufficiently. There are a number of different dimensions to this problem. Certainly, policing is one of them, but there are also responsibilities with the housing authority. There is responsibility in terms of estates management and there is responsibility in the matter of drug abuse in some of those communities.

It is not widely understood how bad the phenomenon is in some estates in my constituency, in the Minister's constituency, in many parts of west Dublin and in many urban areas. It is corroding the fabric of community in those areas.

It is a difficult issue for policing. It is a difficult issue in which to mount effective prosecutions. I am afraid that long-term law-abiding residents in those areas think that those gangs of youths can maraud and rampage with impunity and that the State's agencies and institutions are not capable of dealing with it.

The housing authority has a comprehensive code of conduct in respect of anti-social behaviour but it does not enforce it. There is no conviction among residents that the housing authority or local authority will enforce its own code of behaviour.

As a result, the thugs target people who are vulnerable - people living alone, older people, women and sometimes immigrants. In my constituency recently on four consecutive occasions they have broken into a primary school. Their takings over the four break-ins were €8 but the damage done to the school was of an immensely greater value. They have broken into the community enterprise centre and done serious damage to some of the social enterprise units there. They have attacked the private property of some people attending meetings in the area.

It is not a very good example for those youths, who in some cases are out of control, that they can see on YouTube or on television today the reprehensible attack by thugs on the President, which is something I have never seen in my 30-plus years in politics. I have little time for the weasel words of those who send out the travelling shock troops on such occasions and then seek to hide behind their reprehensible behaviour.

We must come up with more effective ways of combatting this phenomenon. Community policing is a very important aspect of it. A careful tenanting policy is another very important factor. The local authority must be seen to act against some families. If there were evictions the word would go around, but the local authority does not push it as far as evictions, for not very good reasons. I accept that the issue is complex. The local authority says it would be stuck with a particular family and would have to find somewhere to rehouse them. The fact of the matter is that one cannot make people’s lives a misery in the fashion that is happening. If it is only one youth in a particular family then the law ought to facilitate an exclusion order such that he can be removed from enjoyment of the house. It is a very serious issue in parts of Dublin city and parts of urban Ireland. I am very pleased that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, is present.

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