Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a reasonable excuse for missing my slot earlier. I was with National Broadband Ireland and I pointed out all the areas where there is room for speeding up and accelerating the national broadband plan. I hope I will be taken up on all those points, so remember this.

This is one of the many aspects we have dealt with in recent times in updating our legal framework on banking and finance as we try to deal with the modern world we are operating in. This is a world where international criminals were far ahead of the legislative process and all that was required. We are supportive of filling in all these gaps. It is not that long since a number of us would have spoken here on the anomalies that exist in cybercrime, on the legislation required for dealing with that and on those international financial situations, particularly where criminals would use online currencies, including bitcoin. We have to deal with the reality of the wanton criminality within our communities.

Without hearing Deputy Ward's speech, I have no doubt that he would have spoken about Sinn Féin's legislation on the moneys and assets that have been taken by CAB over many years being used by those communities that have been impacted by criminality. When I talk about criminality, I am usually talking about organised drug criminality and it is vital that this is dealt with. I welcome some of what was announced in the budget for community and voluntary groups but the figure of €2 million worries me somewhat because it is insufficient. I would be afraid that this would become another element of regular funding and that it does not represent the top-up funding we were looking for. If we are talking about addiction services, family support services or any of those necessities, such as the family addiction support network in Dundalk, we need to see multi-annual funding that is guaranteed.

There is an onus on us when it comes to the financial sphere. We received further information today that all is not well in the insurance industry. The Government has to follow through on the duty of care legislation and deal with the huge hole in public liability insurance. We know that community centres, businesses and organisations will go to the wall because of this.

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