Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree completely with one of his points. He said that there is almost a perception that if a person comes from a disadvantaged community, he is automatically going to grow up to be involved in crime. That is not always the case - we all know that. However, Deputy Brophy needs to recognise the reality that if a person comes from a particularly disadvantaged or marginalised community, that person is more likely to be involved in crime. It is not an automatic presumption, but it is more likely that such a person will be involved in crime. We need to recognise that and put in place some solutions to address that inequality.

We need to consider how we tackle crime. One example is a particular bugbear of mine for personal reasons, and people know that. When we talk about addiction, we criminalise people who have an illness. The people who are addicted to drugs have an illness. No one sets out to be addicted to heroin or to have a dependency on prescription drugs. It is an illness, yet we criminalise those involved and it does not work. We have been doing it for 40 or 50 years and gangland criminals have thrived on it. I am thinking back to the likes of Tony Felloni. Back 40 years ago we had the same situations and it has been the same with everyone who came after him, including the Dunnes, the General and so on. They have thrived on a society dealing with drug addiction as a criminal issue. We have to change that. We need to stop criminalising communities and addicts and deal with the problems from a public health point of view. Unless we start dealing with addicts with compassion and understanding rather than the general perception that they are the scum of the earth, then we are not going to address the root causes.

Having said that, we also need to tackle some of the causes and why people become involved in addiction. These include problems associated with poverty, housing, marginalisation and lack of opportunity. I agree with the Fine Gael speaker before me. That a person may suffer from poor housing or living in a marginalised community does not automatically mean he will become an addict or involved in crime, but it does increase the likelihood of it. If we are serious about tackling gangland crime, one of the first things we need to do is look at how we approach the victims of gangland crime. In many cases, the victims of gangland crime who are involved in the drugs industry are the addicts themselves. They are victims, not criminals. I am getting a little sick and tired of people coming to the Chamber talking about crime but totally ignoring the reasons and root causes.

Let us consider the Criminal Assets Bureau and the associated legislation we brought in. I completely agree with CAB. It has done magnificent work in trying to tackle the drug lords. The Minister provided some of the figures earlier on the amount of money and assets CAB has seized. Where is all that money going? Little of it is going back into the communities that have been ravaged by drugs.

During the previous Dáil I tabled a question on where the money seized by CAB went but I could not get answers. Then I drafted legislation on the matter. The idea was that the proceeds of crime confiscated by CAB would go directly back into communities which had been ravaged by it. The legislation was ruled out of order because it was a money Bill. In 2003, people in the Fine Gael Party produced similar legislation but when the party was in government, it would not do anything about it.

I have no issue with the concept of CAB but certain communities are being ravaged by drug addiction. The response of the State is to criminalise the addicts and cut resources to community groups and community development projects that are trying to tackle the issue at the coalface. We need to reverse completely the way we deal with it.

Many people have said we need more gardaí on the streets. Getting more gardaí on the streets is part of the solution but putting more gardaí into disadvantaged and marginalised communities where addiction is rife is not going to solve the problem. Unless we deal with the actual problems that exist, including poor housing, poor opportunities and cuts in resources and local community development projects, then we are going to perpetuate the problem. Right now, in some communities in the State, a ten year old child is struggling in school. His parents are trying to access resources and do the best they can by the child, but if we do not intervene at an early stage that ten year old child and others like him could be the next Larry Dunne or the next General and we will have no one to blame only ourselves.

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