Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution to this debate. After 12 years in government, it is clear that Fine Gael is soft on crime. Through its lack of leadership and the lack of funding and resources for An Garda Síochána, organised crime has been allowed to spiral and devastate countless communities. The Government has presided over a continued deterioration in the numbers of gardaí in the State, although I grant that it was begun by Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael had no problem paying bankers and bond holders but then closed the Garda Training College in Templemore, a catastrophic decision from which Garda numbers still have not recovered.

Communities deserve to feel safe and protected yet too many live in the shadow of this shameful thuggery. They want to know that An Garda Síochána can protect them but they have seen the force run into the ground by Fine Gael and they worry that when they call for help, it simply will not come.

I was born in Ballyfermot and lived in Crumlin for 17 years. It is where we brought up our daughter. Both of these areas have suffered heavily from the scourge of organised crime gangs but they are not ganglands. They are full of ordinary working people who need to be able to feel safe in their homes, on their streets and in their communities. The term "gangland" is used all too often by Government representatives. It is offensive. If anyone in this House is contemplating using that term, I would tell him or her that it is offensive to the hard-working and decent people who are forced to put up with the scourge of organised crime gangs destroying their communities.

These are ordinary people who want their children to grow up in a community without the fear that they will be groomed into organised criminal gangs. They totally reject these gangs and want to see them gone. I have seen at first hand young people I knew well who were enticed by the manipulation of these criminals to join them. Slowly but surely they got deeper and deeper into these gangs. Sadly some of them never even saw their 20th birthday. No family should ever go through the heartbreak of seeing their child full of hope and promise slip into the grip of these thugs.

No mam should ever have to see their child so full of potential slip away into these organised crime gangs.

The solution to this is complex. It will take a concerted effort by everyone to ensure no more young people are sucked into these criminal gangs. We must tackle this issue from all angles and defeat it together with a united front and a determination to end all organised crime. We need to ensure all children have full access to education, social care, mental health services and health services. We need to end endemic poverty and disadvantage in many of the communities that some people like to demonise. We need to restore vital community and youth services that the Government has stripped out. We need a fully resourced Garda service that can tackle these organised crime gangs from the mid-level right up to the top. There are not enough gardaí on the streets. Too many stations are either shut or only open for a few hours a day. The population in my constituency of Dublin Fingal continues to grow in areas like Balbriggan, Lusk and Swords, and further massive increases are predicted in the coming years. The Dublin metropolitan area has already seen a 14% increase in its population but a reduction of 18% in the number of gardaí. People report crimes only to be told that no station is open or no gardaí are available. That is an experience that has been relayed to me by constituents on many occasions. I want to pay tribute to the gardaí who work hard in my constituency and all over this State. They are trying their best but they are struggling with limited resources. They tell us all the time - the Minister talks to them and he will know - that if they had more resources, they believe they could do more but they do not feel they are fully and properly resourced.

It is time for Fine Gael to step up and finally show leadership on tackling organised crime. It is time to resource the gardaí so that they can do their jobs properly and safely. We need to see the biggest Garda recruitment drive in the history of the State with a goal of reaching 1,600 recruits each year. That would get gardaí back onto the streets to protect communities and get to grips with these appalling crime gangs. Communities deserve better; they deserve to feel safe and protected. The Government must show leadership on ending organised crime now.

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