Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputy Seán Canney, although he is not here yet.

Fireworks are often at the centre of antisocial activity around Hallowe'en but what is shocking is the fact that in Ireland today more than 500,000 people have their lives disrupted by antisocial behaviour throughout the year. A report published recently by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, showed that one in eight adults in Ireland said their lives had been affected by such activity at some stage last year. If we apply that to the adult population as a whole, it means that the lives of more than 400,000 people in our country aged 18 and over are being adversely affected by antisocial behaviour and for almost 70,000 of them it has made their lives a misery being affected to a greater extent, according to the CSO report. It found that the greatest impact was on people in their 30s and 40s. If we add their children to that whose lives are also being upset, the numbers of those affected would be more than 500,000. It is happening in every county in Ireland, which means that in my home county of Galway, it could be having an impact on 30,000 people.

antisocial behaviour is a growing problem in many areas where a small majority of people, and I am not just talking about teenagers, make life hell for the rest of the community. It can range from rows between neighbours and constant noise to vandalism, intimidation, drug dealing and everything in between that has a detrimental effect on other people living nearby. It is a problem that is enormously difficult to tackle, in part due to the fact that a lot of antisocial behaviour goes unreported because people are afraid of reprisals.

With regard to the greatest weakness in our current laws, our local councils and gardaí need more power to act quickly and effectively to stamp out antisocial behaviour. Council officials can find their hands tied. Current legislation is not an effective deterrent. It can take years to bring misbehaving tenants, for instance, to court as there are so many hoops to be jumped through.

Bad behaviour is not confined to local authority estates. Landlords also need to be given greater scope under the law to act against tenants in private rented property who are engaging in antisocial activities. There are laws in this area but they tend to be clunky and difficult to apply in an effective way.

There is a major role to be played by the community gardaí if we had enough of them walking the beat in the areas worst affected. Ten years ago, we had almost 1,200 community gardaí in Ireland. Today, that number is down to 710. Back then, in the county of Galway we had 22, most of whom were based in the city, but that number is down to just 13 today.

A community garda meeting people in their own neighbourhood day in, day out will have a great feel for what is going on in their area and be in a position to take steps when they see problems developing. A garda who is a familiar face in an area can help nip small-level crime in the bud before it becomes something more serious and a youngster's bit of devilment turns to crime. They can talk directly to the young people and their parents and, for instance, try to stop easily-influenced children being led astray by criminals. It is far more effective in many instances than bringing young offenders through the courts process where they barely get a slap on the wrist and learn little of benefit from the experience.

To return to the main subject of this motion, the message is not getting through to people that fireworks, while exciting and entertaining, are dangerous explosives that should never be in the hands of anyone other than trained and licensed professionals. Every year around Hallowe'en, and long before that in many cases, we read reports from across the country about young people losing fingers, the sight in an eye or suffering other serious and life-changing injuries as a result of handling fireworks. Not only is that message about the danger not getting through to them, it is also not being taken seriously by their parents in many cases. I refer to those adults who either know their children are playing with fireworks and do nothing about it or who set a bad example themselves by acquiring illegal and dangerous fireworks for use as a centre point of a Hallowe'en house party.

As I mentioned earlier, fireworks can also be at the centre of antisocial activities that leave people in fear around Hallowe'en. If we can succeed in removing them from the festivities, it might also help stop the spread of antisocial behaviour throughout the rest of the year.

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