John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not addressed my specific questions in relation to anti-social behaviour orders. I will give him some examples. In my constituency there are multiple low-grade examples of menacing anti-social behaviour. Both people living in local authority estates and people living in some private estates in my constituency want to leave because of the anti-social behaviour of neighbours or other teenagers and young people living in the constituency whose activities are simply not addressed by the Garda. Local authority tenants simply cannot bear to continue living where they are living because of anti-social behaviour and cars set on fire are making public parks unusable by the vast majority of residents who live in that area.

A few weeks ago, a serious incident took place at a DART station in Clongriffin where up to 20 young people, allegedly wearing balaclavas and armed with knives and lumps of wood, blocked the doors of a train at approximately 10.30 p.m. Other examples of anti-social behaviour in Killinarden in relation to buses caused Dublin Bus to withdraw some of the fleet for particular periods. There is a significant amount of low grade, and some high grade, menacing anti-social behaviour that is making residents' lives incredibly difficult. Will the Minister address specifically what he intends to do with regard to anti-social behaviour orders, whether they are working and whether the system is in need of overhaul?

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