Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

Would you ask the Minister of State to have a small bit of respect for me and for the people I represent in my city?

The Minister of State spoke about drives for Garda recruitment, which is all very welcome, but those gardaí have to be supported by the Government. We continually see gardaí leaving the force and going to work in Eli Lilly, Abtran or one of these businesses because it is safer for them and because they do not feel that they are being supported. It is not their fellow gardaí but they are not getting support from senior management and from the Government. I do not blame senior managers because the Government is not providing enough services to help gardaí do their jobs.

Thankfully most of us will not go through violent, vicious attacks in life but most people I know in my constituency and around the country will suffer antisocial behaviour in some way, whether it is the keying of the car, the guy driving his quad bike over someone's roses or through their garden, the guy who has broken the window or the young fellow who has knocked on someone's door and done something naughty or the rest of it or the people who are going out and doing worse. I previously told the Minister of State in this House that an eight-year-old child, well known to the Garda, is being used for drug trafficking in Cork city. He is rewarded with bottles of Coke and a couple of bags of sweets. That is how difficult things have got in parts of the city that I represent and nothing can be done.

Many people here on the extreme left and of the left persuasion have been talking about the hug-a-thug idea, suggesting that we have to put in this facility and that facility, and we have to spend more money on this, that and the other. I agree that we have to invest in our young people. However, we have fantastic hurling and football clubs, tennis clubs and other sports clubs. We have fantastic speech, drama and all those type of clubs around my city, but there is still a cohort involved in antisocial behaviour and we cannot get them out of it. Where are their parents? When did it become the State's responsibility to mind their children? When did it become the State's responsibility to say, "We have to take over"?

I do agree with the notion that a village has to rear a child, but come off it. I am sick to death of hearing, "It's not my Johnny. It's not my Mary." It's about time that the Government got tough on those who commit violent offences and what we're calling antisocial behaviour which is terrorising elderly people in communities, destroying other people's lives, knocking on doors demanding money from people, knocking on doors saying, "We're going to get your young fella at school tomorrow unless you give us this, that and the other," knocking on doors and saying, "Your child owes us money for drugs." They are sending under-18-year-olds to doors to do this. Why are they doing it? They are doing it because they cannot be prosecuted. That is the reality of it. That is the reality of what life is now in certain parts of not just Cork but Dublin and Limerick as well. I am sure if the Minister of State were not so removed from reality, he might know it himself. The reality for many people is that their lives are a living hell and nobody is responsible for it because they are under 18. When did we decide that because someone is under 18 and is a menace to society, they should get away with it? The ASBO idea you brought out-----

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