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

All those present welcome this legislation. My colleague put it well when he referred to the need for zero tolerance when it comes to domestic violence , gender-based violence and violence against women. There can be no place for that in society. As previous speakers indicated, there is no room for a blind eye to be turned on this matter. It is vital that stalking be named as a charge. In fairness, we have dealt with a considerable number of issues that have been in the public domain and through the courts system involving people who have suffered greatly from stalking at varying levels. Obviously, all Deputies have dealt with people who have been put under undue pressure, but it goes right up to the worst cases of violence. Wherever possible, we need to ensure that the Garda has legislation such as this to enable it to act quickly.

At the time of the dreadful case of what happened to Ashling Murphy, a matter came to me, possibly on the basis of this issue being in the public domain, involving young women who were being subjected to behaviour that I can best describe as being where stalking meets pestering meets interfering with property and all the rest of it. It was raised with me from the point of view of needing to ensure it was dealt with adequately by the Garda and so on. All Deputies get that sometimes, unwelcome as it is. That is what you are dealing with as regards particular issues. There will always be issues, times and places, and there can be an escalation. Nobody wants to be the person who did not take action at the early stage when there were warning signs. We need to ensure we have all those parts in play. The Garda needs to be resourced and there needs to be adequate training across the board to ensure the necessary protections are in place and that there is engagement at the point when it is harassment. We know about the huge impact that can have on people's lives.

The Bill is very welcome. I do not think there will be any major difficulty in dealing with the sporting difficulties raised by Deputy Martin Kenny. We all accept, in the world in which we live, that we need to provide the strongest possible laws and tools to deal with serious organised crime.

When dealing with matters relating to criminal justice, I find it difficult not to end up on my hobby horse, which I would much prefer was not my hobby horse, namely, the issue of drug crime and, in particular, drug debt intimidation. The latter involves individuals and families who come under severe pressure and harassment from criminal elements to pay up what may be a debt but, in most cases, as all Deputies have seen, involves interest rates that are on a spectacular level, where €400 becomes €800 and then €1,200, or €1,200 becomes €6,000 very quickly. On some level, the business model absolutely works in the sense that I suspect that in many cases the dealers are quite happy when payment is not made immediately. These are the issues that come across the desks of Deputies and in respect of which they deal directly with the Garda. All those present know of the serious players, such as the organisation referred to as the Kinahan cartel, and others who are involved in this, but there is no town or village in the State that is not under severe pressure from these criminals. All Deputies accept on some level that the war on drugs has been well and truly lost and that we need something far more novel that works for everyone in the context of dealing with that element of criminality to which I refer and providing protection and early intervention for families and communities.

Beyond that there are the addiction services and the necessary health response. We hope that a date will be set for the citizens' assembly, that it can happen as quickly as possible in the new year, that the real novel response that is necessary will happen and that there will be sufficient courage to come up with possible solutions, whether we are talking about the Portuguese models or whatever else. We then need to have the courage in here to follow through on it. I support this Bill. We all know the complete necessity of dealing with gender-based and domestic violence and with the whole issue of stalking.

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