Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this matter. I thank the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in advance not only for responding here but also for his responses to my parliamentary questions and letters on this issue. I hope he, along with the Minister for Justice, can tell how passionate I am about my proposal. I believe it involves a common sense approach to dealing with the plague of crimes affecting society and that will always affect it.

In recent months, I have been vocal about an issue that is very close to home in my constituency, involving families I know very well. I refer to the rise in knife crime. In 2019, over 2,000 knives were seized from our streets. This year alone, over 1,200 knives have already been seized. Hospital admissions in this regard are up by 10% owing to stabbings and slashings.

We must ask how we can target the source of crime. This year has been a bonanza year, particularly for An Garda Síochána, primarily due to the Covid pandemic restrictions. So far, bearing in mind that the year is not even over and we are not even at the end of November, €16 million in cash has been seized by An Garda alone, never mind the Criminal Assets Bureau or any other agency. Last year, it was just over €7 million. The year before that, it was just over €7 million. This year alone, An Garda has taken in more cash than in the previous two years together. What will we do with it? I anticipate the Minister's reply. I appreciate what it is and will not necessarily dispute it but we can take the money and plough it straight in at source to tackle the causes of crimes. We can run youth diversion programmes, new education programmes and work experience programmes and pay for addiction counsellors and social workers. People always talk about sentencing and being tough on law and order but if one is not tough on the causes of crime, one is merely allowing it to continue apace.

I am aware of the budgeting argument. The Minister says we are not in a position to work it out but the money in question is new money. Rather than just ploughing it back into the Exchequer to have it scattered around Departments, we should ring-fence it. We have an additional €9 million this year alone. This does not compare with any of the previous two years. I refer to the additional €9 million in cash that has been seized, not to mention the moneys from the goods auctioned off by the Criminal Assets Bureau, such as the luxury watches, motor cars, property and designer art. Every day on An Garda Síochána's Twitter account, one sees that €10,000 has been seized here and that €1 million has been seized there, or that ten motorbikes have been seized here and that 17 Rolex watches have been seized there. Rather than saying it is great and taking the money, let us invest in the communities that are absolutely devastated by the criminals and gangsters. Let us take the ill-gotten gains of some of the worst criminals and mobsters in the country and invest them in the communities and projects that will make sure the residents' sons and daughters will not go down the path of crime that so many in their communities have gone down. I ask the Minister once again, this time on the floor of the Chamber, to reconsider this matter, if only in respect of the additional €9 million seized this year, and ring-fence the money next year for a new project.

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