Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share my time with Deputy Clare Daly.

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this important topic. I have always believed in the policy of being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Along with some of my colleagues from my former party on Dublin City Council, we developed that kind of policy in the early and mid-1990s - long before the Blairites. We favoured directing resources particularly towards the second part - tough on the causes of crime - while being ruthlessly tough on people who carry out crimes.

The recent resurgence of gangland crime and daylight assassinations has brought the issue of mob crime and murders firmly back into the spotlight. We are now into the fourth month of the interregnum with acting Ministers, would-be Ministers, past Ministers or whatever. There does not seem to be any direction given to the massive fight that is necessary against the appalling events that have happened on our streets.

Like a previous speaker, I have represented some of the mothers and children who were in the Regency Hotel on the day a shooting took place. We have seen a whole litany of these murders carried out with impunity. In the past we have had similar episodes of five and six assassinations, with parishes such as mine in Donaghmede being traumatised by incidents in which someone took the life of a young man without any trial or inquiry into what he might have been involved in and then seeming to walk away with impunity, leaving the community terrorised. We have recently had seven of these murders and they follow the terrifying episodes in the past. In Dublin Bay North we have had up to six such assassinations over a six-month period.

I agree with Archbishop Martin’s call for much tougher legislation specifically directed at criminal gangs and their leadership. While earlier measures on the State addressed terrorist activity, crime bosses and drug lords, it clearly did not go far enough in eliminating this horrendous criminal activity in its entirety. A few years ago I lost my job as Whip of my former party when I opposed the stupid and ill-timed opposition of the former Deputy Pat Rabbitte to the Criminal Justice Bill 2009, which sought to identify and jail directors of criminal activity. Mr. Rabbitte's stupid "liberal" reason for opposing that always escaped me, because we needed this legislation on the streets and today we need ferociously strong action to end this terrorism.

There are allegations that gangs in Ireland are being directed from abroad. During the term of the Minister and her predecessor, why has the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau not applied for EU arrest warrants? Why have we not brought these alleged ringleaders back to this country for trial and punishment? Like other speakers, including Deputy Coppinger, I have sincere sympathy for those who have suffered greatly from rural crime. The upsurge in rural crime certainly seems to have partially followed the vicious cutbacks in garda numbers over the austerity years. We learnt last year that the closure of 139 rural Garda stations saved the State just €556,000 per year, yet it seemed to have a devastating impact in terms of increases in rural crime. It is also clear that many gangs from Dublin and other urban centres were travelling to areas where they knew there was a lower Garda presence and they carried out awful burglaries, and indeed terrorised, endangered and traumatised innocent families and people. All communities around Ireland need a visible Garda presence with constant community patrols in order to combat such targeting of individuals, homes and families. However, as colleagues have said, Dublin has suffered huge levels of anti-social and drug-fuelled crime for decades, and it had always been extremely difficult to get this rural-dominated Dáil to address these issues. Sometimes in the past when we raised issues such as joyriding, drug-fuelled robberies and so on, it seemed that some of our rural colleagues thought we had two heads. I remember someone quoted in a newspaper as saying, "Don't be wasting the time of the Dáil talking about crime in Dublin." Now that such serious levels of crime have spread out from Dublin and other urban centres, at long last the rural Deputies seem to understand our law and order problems.

I understand the Harcourt Square Garda station, with more than 1,000 staff, including 600 gardaí, is due to close in May. However, as reported earlier this week, the staff have not yet been informed where they will be moving to. The Criminal Assets Bureau is stationed there. With such uncertainty around such a prominent move, how will it affect An Garda Síochána's ability to investigate criminals and continue with vital work?

We have witnessed deplorable cuts in Garda services under the outgoing Government, in the numbers of gardaí on the beat, in the resources provided to them to assist them in keeping communities safe, in the closure of Garda stations and, indeed, in the restriction of hours of stations that are still open. Howth Garda station in my constituency has no night-time presence. The town and district of Howth welcome up to 1 million people a year, with sometimes up to 40,000 or 50,000 on a single day, yet we do not have a station operating at night. My former Dublin City Council colleague Councillor Christy Burke spoke recently about the negative impact of the closure of the station in Fitzgibbon Street. That was a vital location, and Councillor Burke was correct. One wonders about the logic of that, given the vast territory and also the presence nearby of Croke Park and so on.

The strength of An Gardaí Síochána went from 14,547 gardaí, 478 members of the Garda Reserve and 2,105 civilians at the end of 2009 to fewer than 12,800 gardaí, 1,112 members of the Garda Reserve and 2,054 civilians at the end of 2014. Of course I welcomed the end of the moratorium and the beginning of a rebuilding of the force. However, numbers remain very low in many important districts. My constituency of Dublin Bay North comprises Garda districts J and R of the Dublin Metropolitan Region. At the end of February 2016 there were just 159 and 196 gardaí attached to each district, respectively, covering huge territories in north Dublin, such as Coolock and Swords. Of the 395 newly attested gardaí, just 29 have been assigned to the DMR North division. Overall Garda Reserve numbers have more than doubled since 2009, and it is welcome to see that members of the Garda Reserve can now have this recognised and taken into consideration should they apply to become full-time members of An Garda Síochána. On that matter I commend the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald. Along with other Deputies, I have made representations on behalf of the Garda Reserve to the effect that their service should be taken into account. I think that was a good measure.

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