Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the Chamber and thank her for bringing forward this very important motion. I have listened to a lot of the speakers today. There are lots of things going on and lots of things being discussed but at the end of the day we are talking about law and order in our country.

The first point I would make is that we needed this emergency legislation during the Troubles in the North which spilled over into the South. As the Minister said in her opening remarks, that has not all gone away. There are still undercurrents of that so this legislation is required as a safeguard for issues that might arise. We need to be vigilant going forward. Whether we like it or not, the drugs trade in this country is thriving. This is an emergency because it is not confined to Dublin, inner-city Dublin or any other city; drugs are freely available in every town and village right across this country. The effect of this may not be seen yet but I would proffer that in the next ten years we will see the detrimental effect on society of the wide availability of drugs. The drugs trade is controlled by drug dealers. Some people call them drug lords but I would not give them that kind of title. The people who are orchestrating all of this for money are throwing people into fear and families into disarray because they do not know how to cope. Drug use is also very silent. If people drink pints, they will either fall down, go to sleep or go fighting but if they take drugs, we do not know what is going to happen. It is very important that people are educated about drugs. Also, our gardaí need a huge amount of help. I want to put on record my support for the introduction of additional tools to help gardaí to deal with crime. The facial recognition technology and body cameras are essential but they are only part of an overall suite of modern technologies that we need in order to be able to combat and drive out these villains who are using every technology at their disposal to prevent detection. I commend the gardaí who do an awful lot of work in this area. When they put on their uniforms in the morning and go out there, God knows what they are going to face. We need to support them more and make sure that the respect we had in the past for An Garda Síochána remains intact. The best way we can do that is by giving them the tools, including legislation, that they require.

As regards the Special Criminal Court, there has been a review of it and two reports on it have been produced. That is a good thing because it provides material for us, as legislators, to consider when deciding on the best way forward. I agree that decisions in courts should be made by a jury but, of course, there are exceptions to that rule. I would not like juries to be used when drug people who instil fear in everyone in the State are being tried. Basically, action needs to be taken by An Garda and a judge in such cases.

This is a debate we will continue to have in future. Please God, we will all still be here to have it next year. Between now and then, however, steps should be taken to bring in legislation that will take over from this to deal with modern terrorism, if I might call it that, and the modern way in which villains are operating in this country and outside it. Issues such as crime and drugs are global at this stage and we need to ensure the legislation and laws that apply in this country can also help us to deal with people who get out of here when the heat on them gets too hot.

It is important we have strong legislation, not as a big hammer to bring down on people but to have in reserve for when it needs to be used. That is why we need to keep the legislation in place. In addition, we need to have a good look at the criminal court and its set-up going forward. That debate should begin tomorrow or the day after that and it should be a good and honest discussion. That is what democracy is about. I do not accept that anybody in this Chamber wants to bring in legislation to protect something or to prevent free speech or anything like that. I do not buy into that. This is an important debate but there are many more important debates to happen in the coming weeks and months to ensure we have something different to talk about when we discuss this legislation next year.

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