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

I would also offer another example for the Deputy maybe to investigate, which is the Icelandic model. The Icelandic model of intervention in organised crime, once again, is about early intervention. It gives, by right, every young person in that country access to culture and drama because a gateway to engaging in criminality and that form of desperation is poverty and a lack of opportunity. Certainly, through the Governments led by Fine Gael and others, we have not had that approach yet.

I have presented some solutions. If I have time, I will outline what I consider are solutions that we have not tried, for example, in the eradication of organised crime and that which goes with it, which is the illicit sale of drugs. Step one involves removing the weaknesses in the State that are being exploited by organised crime actors through an actual attempt at the eradication of poverty by establishing social controls and strong community policing that does not tolerate open drug dealing. Open drug dealing is what we have. Under a party that self-identifies as one of law and order, we have had communities who have to suffer open drug dealing. There are flat complexes where residents have not seen a garda because if the drugs problem is contained in them, it is not anywhere else. The late Deputy, Tony Gregory - I have seen videos of this - referenced, in the 1980s and 1990s, a policy of containment. I would argue that continues today. I would eradicate that and then build on social cohesion, strengthening community through services and dialogue.

Step two would involve empowering families and young people. Rather than disqualifying them and deeming them unfit for jobs, let us empower families and empower young people so that they do not get involved in organised crime. We do this through engaging at-risk young people so that they have supervision, mentorship, guidance and support and they are not left vulnerable to grooming.

I remember in 2016 when what we saw in the Special Criminal Court this week started from a so-called feud that devastated my community. We had Fine Gael Ministers and others coming in and promising a new approach and a task force, which became the north inner city task force. That is run by the Taoiseach's office today. I cannot comprehend how the Taoiseach or a representative of the Department of Justice is not asking us, seven years later, to look at the wonderful results we got from that, given the promises the Government made at that time. There has not been a huge level of success because crime and drug-related crime cannot be eradicated without going to the source and targeting poverty, absence of opportunity and increasing educational attainment.

The Minister referred to access to education. I guarantee that when the The Irish Timespublishes its feeder school list of who gets the best places in the best colleges next year, the same schools will be on it again. The schools which are most affluent and have the most resources get better access to university places. Those with the lowest progression rates to college and university once again come from communities which are most impacted by crime. Through the Chair, I would say to Deputy Durkan that if we really want to get results, we should increase those rates.

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