Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

-----for some, this is not actually about the communities who are impacted, devastated and exploited by the issue of organised criminality. It seems to be an opportunity to just take shots and further relegate this Chamber to some form of Westminsterisation. I will not stand for it. This is an important topic that impacts the community I represent and we will have our time to talk about that.

Organised crime, which we are debating as opposed to settling any scores or vendettas among different groups in the Chamber, is so-called because of the illicit activities and violence associated with it that is carried out at random. It is carefully planned and it is strategised. It operates through a hierarchy where there is a clear ranking of leaders in the upper echelons who are responsible for strategic thinking and decision-making around activities. These activities are then carried out by lower-level members, much like any corporation.

When looking at the modus operandiof an organised criminal enterprise, two different desired outcomes can be discerned - power and profit. Organised criminal enterprises, much like corporations, are increasingly technologically advanced. They carry out their operations online commanding access to wider distribution networks and markets while also engaging in their own form of counter-surveillance.

Organised criminal enterprises go so far as to carry out public relations activities through getting involved in local clubs and services to establish political and ideological popularity and control, just like corporations. Much like any large successful corporation, organised criminal enterprises are instruments of globalisation operating not only on a local and national level, but through large global supply chains and markets. It appears that they both have much in common but they are, in fact, worlds apart in other regards.

In the pursuit of profit and power, corporations will try find and exploit gaps in the market but organised criminal enterprises would try to find and exploit weaknesses in the State offering up forms of authority, their own forms of social contracts and their own forms of services within communities with such services otherwise unheard of.

I was taken aback by Deputy Durkan's comment that those of us who believe in a different model and approach to eradicating the criminality that we have seen in our communities have become some sort of a boon to the drug barons. The greatest asset to drug barons is poverty and poverty is perpetuated. Deputy Durkan can shake his head.

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