Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government has sat on its hands when it comes to reform of the Special Criminal Court. It has sat on the review for more than a year. There is no sign of any progress. We need a more modern understanding of the threats to the security of the State that originate from organised criminal gangs. We need action and we need reform. I do not see how laws created in the 1940s can possibly be fit for purpose in the 21st century. The societal landscape has completely changed since the 1940s.

Sinn Féin has long argued for improved protection for juries, including a new offence of jury tampering, and to end this nonsense of annual renewal, which will bring certainty to the process. We all want safer, vibrant communities without the fear of drug-debt intimidation. The Government's job is to put tools in the hands of the Garda and the courts to make this happen. If Fine Gael, the so-called party of law and order, were serious about tackling organised crime in our areas, we would not see Garda numbers decrease, gardaí leaving in record numbers, gardaí having no confidence in the Garda Commissioner, and the Fine Gael justice Minister failing to attend the Garda annual conference, despite getting an invitation. What message did that send to the ordinary rank and file gardaí?

We would also not see our communities feeling abandoned by the State and left to deal with the fall-out from organised criminal gangs. We all hear about these criminal kingpins, and they must be tackled head on, but these criminal gangs have a ripple effect in our communities. Young people at the bottom of the criminal food chain are being coerced into gang-related activity. I will give the Minister an example from the area where I live. A dispute is going on between two warring factions from different criminal gangs in the same area. I have lost count of how many homes in my area have been petrol bombed in the past year. Nobody should lose their home like this. In some instances, the wrong or mistaken homes have been targeted. When this happens, the whole community goes on alert. Families and neighbours are terrified. They are thinking, "Am I next? Will the house next door to me be petrol bombed next?" These communities feel abandoned. Shots are being fired at each other across gardens, with no regard for the safety of ordinary workers and families in the area where I live. We have had a recent machete attack, where a young boy was hacked by a machete in broad daylight, on the main road and in public view, outside shops on the Neilstown Road. The Minister should believe me when I say that to add to this fear of lawlessness, this is all played out on social media. The machete attack, the gun attacks and the firebombs are all played out on social media for the world to see.

I grew up in north Clondalkin. It is an area that I am hugely proud of and proud to be from. The ordinary people in my area, including my neighbours, family, friends and people I grew up with have constantly punched up just to get better resources for their community. I have a message for those partaking in the recent violent attacks: they do not represent my community; they do not represent the ordinary workers, families and good people in my community; and they need to stop now before somebody is killed.

I have a message for the Minister. We need to set up a task force in north Clondalkin to tackle this escalating violence. We need to see more gardaí visible on our streets. We need more targeted outreach programmes to reach these young people. I need the Minister to step in and make my community safe again.

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