Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I could speak for the day on this matter, but I will try to put as many of the relevant points forward as possible in three minutes.

I welcome the Bill, the provisions of which I hope will give an advantage to the Garda and the justice system. We need to put the same level of fear into criminals that they are putting into people. I am not sure whether it can be replicated lawfully but these scumbags need to be hammered by every means that the State can employ. What they are doing to ordinary, decent folk around the country is unacceptable. We must show no tolerance for such behaviour, in particular among repeat offenders. Everyone makes mistakes, but these people make mistake after mistake. There can be no leeway for them. They need to be locked up. I would throw away the key. The fear that I have encountered among people in rural parts of my constituency who have been victimised is shameful. We must take the strongest possible line.

I wish to address isolated rural communities. I welcome the Fianna Fáil Bill on motorways that was published last week, but a small bit of common sense would see us offering more protection to people living in isolated communities through the placing of cameras at strategic locations. I will provide an example from my constituency. There are only two access points onto the Dingle Peninsula, with 13,000 or 14,000 people living beyond them. One must either cross the bridge at Boolteens or take the N86 at Derrymore or Curraheen. There is no other vehicular access. Why not have cameras at those two points? A number of people on Valentia Island were the victims of burglary in recent times. One needs to cross the bridge to get onto the island. That is, unless one takes a boat, but I do not know many criminals who are making high-speed escapes by boat. Why not have a camera on the bridge? If one wants to get to most parts of the Iveragh Peninsula, one must cross the River Laune. We need cameras at its bridging points. If one wants to get from south Kerry to north Kerry or vice versa, one must cross the River Maine. There are only a handful of bridging points, so let us have cameras there. They will not prevent crime, but they will help as deterrents.

The little parish that I come from is squeezed between the Slieve Mish Mountains and Castlemaine Harbour, making it a long, linear parish. A single main road runs through it with little byroads branching off of it, each of which is lined by 20 or 30 houses. One must pass a single point between the main road and the byroad to access them. For a very small cost, a little camera placed at the bottom or top of each byroad would provide a great deal of security and a sense of safety to the people living there. People might claim that this is big brother territory, but it is not. It is only using modern technology cleverly to give us the best possible chance of targeting the scumbags to whom I referred.

We must keep recruiting gardaí. Templemore was closed but has since re-opened. It will take a long time for the cycle that came about after the embargo on recruitment to be reversed. This is not an issue of Garda stations but of gardaí who are visible, mobile, effective and resourced. We need to get gardaí into our communities, give people a sense of security and ensure a deterrence against the perpetrators of crime.

I welcome that my Ramming of Garda Vehicles Bill 2015, which has been selected to be read on Second Stage, will be debated in the House on 11 December. We must make ramming Garda vehicles a specific crime as it is now almost second nature for criminals when being pursued. They do not think twice about doing it and injuring the vehicle's occupants or worse. We need to clamp down hard on this issue. I look forward to contributions from Members from all sides of the House on that Bill when it is debated on 11 December.

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