Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I commend Deputy Griffin on bringing the Bill before us and the Minister of State's response on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald. If we were to go through the names of the 88 members of the Garda Síochána who have died in the service of the State, quite a number of them died in road traffic accidents. This is because they are the front line and put their lives on the line to protect the State and the individuals in it. From Henry Phelan in November 1922 to Tony Golden in October this year, the 88 members served the State with distinction and made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their communities and the country.

Deputy Griffin's Bill is worth debating and examining from the aspect of the Department of Justice and Equality regarding what Deputy Eoghan Murphy referred to as isolating the intent of a criminal or individual attempting to evade prosecution for deliberately ramming a vehicle in the knowledge that his or her actions might result in the death of a person, whether a garda or, through an accident, another individual, as has happened in the past. Deputy Griffin presented statistics on the number of vehicles affected and the knock-on effect of the loss of the vehicle to the Garda Síochána on a temporary or permanent basis and the loss of garda hours through the victim's injury or permanent incapacitation, which can result from such vehicle collisions.

Although the Government has invested an unprecedented €875 million in Garda infrastructure, as the Minister of State helpfully outlined, the other side of it is the investment in high speed pursuit vehicles to enable gardaí to keep up with criminals who are usually in vehicles that are superior to the standard two litre diesel Garda vehicle. The other side is something Deputy Harrington referenced, which is that a proportion of criminals use Jeeps and similar larger vehicles with bull bars which, in a ramming incident, can cause catastrophic damage to the vehicle.

The Minister of State has outlined a number of pieces of law on the Statute Book and he is right about the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act 1997 and other provisions. However, I agree with the thrust of the Bill, which is to mark this particular crime out as a severe crime that warrants a punitive sentence up to and including the revision of bail laws which we are considering. The Criminal Justice (Burglary of Dwellings) Bill, which allows for consecutive sentences for individuals who are caught and prosecuted while another case is pending against them, within two years, clearly marks such a person out for special attention, as does Deputy Griffin's Bill. An individual who commits such a crime should be severely punished. While life imprisonment for attempted murder or the like is a very clear message, criminals may receive parole or slightly shorter sentences due to circumstances which the particular judge on the day takes into consideration and which do not get into the newspapers. We are aghast when an individual receives a shorter sentence than we think is justified. This is by no means an attack on the Judiciary, only a fact. Unfortunately, people who receive a sentence of ten, 15 or 20 years do not serve the full term.

The Garda Commissioner and the Minister have done much work regarding the resources allocated to the Garda Síochána. Recruitment was started this year with 550 new gardaí recruited, and 600 will be recruited next year, in an attempt to rebuild the numbers of gardaí on the beat and available to serve in our communities. It is essential if we are to give people peace of mind. Deputy Sean Fleming referenced the fact that most Garda vehicles are unmarked and he spoke of one road traffic collision on a secondary route when five unmarked vehicles showed up.

This proves that gardaí are there even if one does not see them. In rural areas, the closure of Garda stations has led to a significant amount of concern. As some of my colleagues who are based in constituencies with large rural areas can attest, the perception of a non-availability of gardaí is a driver of fear, which often fuels itself. Despite this, a significant seven-year survey of crime in general by a professor at the University of Michigan with Irish connections showed that the crime levels were directly linked with unemployment as opposed to issues such as the number of gardaí or stations. According to the Central Statistics Office, 75% of burglaries occur in the Dublin region.

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