Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy O'Callaghan on introducing this Bill. It is one of a number of measures he is leading on behalf of Fianna Fáil to deal with some worrying changes in our society, including increases in crime, intimidation and violent crime. While the CSO does not report detailed figures on knife crime for various reasons, it is pretty clear that things are moving in the wrong direction. We can look, as various Deputies have, at the increased number of seizures, up from 1,200 to 2,000 in just two years. That is an extraordinary increase. We know that in many of these trends we follow the UK, and that it has become a most serious issue there. Everyone in this House knows, from representing our constituents, that there is an increased level of fear and of weapons being produced in violent incidents. I have been looking at this in detail for Wicklow over the last while, since I was at a joint policing committee meeting, and the figures are really worrying. Rape and sexual assaults are up by a third in one year. Burglaries are up by a third in one year. Drugs sale and supply are up by a half in one year. Shoplifting is up by a half in one year. When I talk to gardaí, retailers, citizens and community groups they are saying two things again and again. The number of gardaí has been depleted to an unsustainably low level and the resources they have are unsustainably low. It is in the power of the Government to do something about that. It has to be looked at. We have a situation where we know a lot of gardaí will get pulled up to the Border region. It is entirely likely that is going to happen. We have consider accelerating the number of gardaí we are deploying around the country and in my case out to Wicklow. I am not even going to put on the record the depletion in the numbers but it is not pretty and it has led directly to increases in crime and violent crime all over Wicklow and, I am sure, all over the country.

The second issue coming up again and again is drugs. People are telling me that they have become prevalent and that drug dealing is happening in the open in the middle of the day in a way it never has before in this country. What that says to everyone in a town or village who sees these open acts of criminality is that the State is not here to protect them and the Garda does not have the resources to protect them. If that is allowed happen, God knows what else can happen. It tells people they are not safe and none of us wants that. I am not making any political points here. No one in this House wants that to happen. I appeal to the Government that whatever its ambitions are to add more gardaí, some of which was agreed through confidence and supply, we have to go further. In some areas at least we are losing the fight and it is not a fight we can ever lose. I compliment Deputy O'Callaghan and hope the Government will not just accept but champion this Bill and bring it forward. It does something very reasonable. It does not set a mandatory sentence of ten years; it provides that the maximum sentence can be up to ten years. We need to send out a strong signal that it is not okay to walk around this country carrying deadly weapons with the intent to hurt, maim and stab people.

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