Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for sharing some of his time with me. I would like to explain why I welcome this Bill. In 2007, my house was robbed. We were all asleep upstairs. It was 1 April 2007. When we came down the stairs the following morning, my car was gone. Keys and other items were taken as well. Three months later, my car keys were found in a skip in Blanchardstown. I want to talk about the scars and the victims that are left behind after something like this happens. My son was old enough to understand what had happened. My girls are younger, so they did not understand at the time. My son would not go to sleep until I came home at night because he was scared. If he heard anything, he would jump up and look out the windows. The scars that are left behind after these robberies affect those involved and local communities.

There were many robberies in the Trim area in 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2015. I will speak in a minute about the need for modern technology. There were 54 gardaí in Trim when many of these robberies were taking place. In 2014, we had one of the most violent robberies ever seen on CCTV in the Trim area. A jewellery shop in Trim was robbed. I went up to see the owner of the shop. All the glass was broken, and the man had been beaten and his shoes had been taken off. This happened in the area where the broken glass was. The man's mouth and hands had been tied. He was unable to stand up on the broken glass to look for help. This involved a group of foreign national criminals who had come into this country. They bought cars two weeks beforehand. After they did the robbery, they burnt the car out at Boardsmill and skipped out of the country.

I welcome the provision of €5 million for new cars. We need CCTV cameras at all the major junctions. That will definitely help, as will the new tagging and bail laws. I am pleased that gardaí will be able to argue against someone getting bail. We need tougher laws when these criminals go into court. We need judges to take these crimes more seriously. I agree with the Deputy who wondered how people who have never worked a day in their lives can afford new sports utility vehicles, Transit vans and flashy cars. We need the Criminal Assets Bureau to go in and target such people. They have to be doing something to facilitate the lifestyles they have. We also need to look at border security It is not good enough that just because one comes from an EU member state, one can flash one's EU passport to be allowed in and out of any European country. We saw what happened in France recently. I think we have to look at tighter border security in Europe. I welcome Bill. It is a start, but we have a long way to go.

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