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

Organised and disorganised crime have flourished in areas of high disadvantage, areas that nobody cared about for many years, under multiple governments of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Deputy O'Dowd spoke about the Drogheda implementation board and its plan. I am very much in support of that type of multi-agency response. There are still issues. The Red Door Project and others may be glad of certain bits of funding, but nobody has the real multi-annual funding required to be strategic.

Let us be clear: we are talking about many generations who have been absolutely failed. If we are serious, it is about resourcing the Garda. We have all spoken to gardaí who do not believe anybody, the Government included, has their back and do not believe they have the supports. We know that there are issues with recruitment and retention and that there have always been issues with resourcing, training and equipment, so we need to provide the Garda with the supports needed. We know that the addiction services are not there. We know that gardaí at times have to make up for the mental health supports that are not there. Let us be really clear. Let us see if we are serious about dealing with organised crime and drugs.

I say that while accepting that the citizens' assembly may be a bit braver than many of us in here, but let us be clear that we really have to get to grips with poverty. We have to level the playing field and bridge the gaps, and that means early family intervention, real supports and changing the way we do things altogether. Let us be clear, however: there will always be a need to give those supports to the Garda. When I was a councillor I probably spent more time dealing with gardaí than I did with council officials, and it was usually about drug debt intimidation. I commend the work they do, but they do not have the resources or the capacity to deal with the level we have let organised crime get to. I accept that we have domestic and international issues, and we will support anything that will deal with this, but we need to get real rather than just coming out with trite comments here and trying to make cheap political arguments.

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