Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I normally welcome the opportunity to speak on legislation. It is a very important part of our democratic process. However, it is beyond belief that we are here once again reviewing emergency powers that were put in place five decades ago. The emergency was declared over in 1995 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Twenty-six years later the Government announced a review. This review is still dragging on but, in the meantime, national and international human rights organisations are calling for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court. It is an unfair and unreasonable court system and is also a court that does not work. Throughout the State, criminal gangs are terrorising communities but the Garda, through no fault of its own, can do little to stop them. The Special Criminal Court is not a deterrent to these gangs because it is clearly not working due to what is happening on the ground. We need new modern legislation that will deal with organised crime and take it to task.

I will give the Minister a flavour of what is going on. Last Thursday night, I was at an under-nine blitz match in the area where I live. Different clubs from different areas were there. Boys' and girls' teams were also training there, but a gang of youths on stolen motorbikes and trail bikes, wearing balaclavas, helmets and masks, were going up and down a very busy road in the centre of my constituency. The chairman of the club asked me to ring the Garda, which I did. I was at that club for two hours but I saw no gardaí. I made four phone calls, including two 999 calls, to the Garda. They said to me that resources were being allocated on a priority basis. A couple of hundred people were in this sporting facility who could not get out. Does the Minister know what I had to do? I had to go out onto the road in my own car to go to these gangs to ask them to stop, explain to them what they were doing to the community, and ask them to go away. I am not looking for a medal for that because I know that Sinn Féin activists throughout the State and the island do the same. I then had to go back down, stand on the road and wave the cars out because there were no gardaí to be got. This is the fourth time this has happened in my community. We are now talking about this Bill, but who is talking about Garda resources on the ground?

I will give the Minister another example. In another part of my constituency, two young children, aged nine and 11, were running wild. The damage they were doing was unbelievable. They were vulnerable children. It was not their fault. I contacted the Garda but gardaí said they could do nothing as these children were under 12. I contacted Tusla but nothing came of it. In the end, what we had were two children who were terrorising the community and no one able to act. I will give the Minister a taste of this. In January 2022, there were 734 gardaí in Cork. That fell to 699 in January this year. In February this year, it fell to 673 and on 31 March the number stood at 668. That was a reduction of 66 gardaí in Cork over two years.

We have real problems in respect of justice and Garda resources in the State. I have a list of other things the Minister needs to deal with to protect communities from organised crime.

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