John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise once again the ever increasing problem of graffiti in our city. At the beginning of the summer I raised this issue in the hope that the Government would take action to deal with it. Sadly, very little has been done and the complaints from constituents about this issue continue.

It seems this Government, consisting of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, does not recognise litter, dog dirt or graffiti as problems. It has been in power since 1997 and has done very little about any of these issues. As the general election approaches I give a commitment on behalf of my party to deal with these problems by introducing specific legislation and through a co-ordinated, targeted approach, an approach which has worked elsewhere and will work here as well.

On the question of graffiti we need to distinguish between street art and what is known as tagging. Much street art has artistic merit and the Green Party believes we ought to engage in a dialogue between local authorities and street artists to provide areas where they can express themselves. There are many areas in the city where blank walls could be provided for street artists. I understand that discussions are already under way between Dublin City Council and street artists to provide five such blank walls in the city. We should also look at the whole issue of shop fronts, particularly the proliferation of ugly shutters. These are a magnet for taggers. Shutters should be put on the inside. If they are on the outside perhaps we could have an arrangement with graffiti artists to beautify these very ugly shop fronts.

We need to make that distinction between street art and tagging. There is little artistic merit to tagging. In my constituency I have seen the walls of pensioners' houses ruined with tagging, which is the result of someone spraying their initials or a symbol to mark out their territory, much like an animal does in the wild. In other cities throughout Europe such Paris and Berlin, tagging has reached epidemic proportions. I have seen it not just on the walls of houses but also on playground equipment, on public transport and even inside public transport. I do not know who has given some individuals the right to deface community or public property.

We need investment in removing graffiti. We must also introduce penalties as a deterrent. If we had a dedicated unit in the Garda working side by side with local authorities and equipped with camcorders and digital cameras, we would quickly determine who was carrying out this vandalism. These individuals should be named and shamed. Let us not fall into the trap of thinking that those engaged in tagging or graffiti vandalism, as it ought to be known, are somehow from deprived backgrounds. It is not the case. Many of these people are from well-off backgrounds.

I have seen little evidence of political graffiti. If people want to express themselves politically they can do so on these blank walls or through proper political agitation. The Criminal Damage Act 1991 and the Litter Pollution Act 1997 are not adequate to deal with the increasing problem of graffiti vandalism. I contrast the lack of strategy and policy in Ireland with the coherent approach elsewhere. I have a document entitled Combating Graffiti, which is jointly signed by the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and its police commissioner, Raymond Kelly. This booklet, which is distributed among the community, defines graffiti, outlines the strategies to combat graffiti and gives useful telephone numbers to call if one sees graffiti vandalism taking place or one wants graffiti removed.

In the section on laws to combat graffiti, we are told that the New York administrative code penalises acts commonly known as graffiti vandalism; bans anyone possessing aerosol spray or broad-tipped indelible markers in a public building or facility with the intent to make graffiti; restricts the sale of these items to anyone under the age of 18; prohibits sellers of aerosol spray paint and indelible markers from displaying these items in their stores. The document also outlines the role of the police force in preventing graffiti, stating:

The Police Department has established a City-Wide Vandals Task Force. The Task Force will create and implement the strategies and tactics for dealing with graffiti vandalism and defacement of public and private property. The Task Force will also administer the Graffiti Reward Program.

The section on the graffiti rewards programme states:

Members of the public are eligible for up to a five hundred dollars ($500.00) reward for reporting graffiti vandalism. . . . The information must result in the arrest and conviction of individual(s) for violations.

Bakersfield with one quarter the population of this city has one police lieutenant responsible for a programme of oversight. It also has city council public referral-interdepartmental service co-ordination, one police sergeant, and one full-time and one part-time police officer. We have nothing like this. We have no co-ordinated approach and I call on the Government to make an effort to combat this serious problem.

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his public-spirited involvement in this issue. I am standing in for my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche. I am pleased to have the opportunity to outline the position on this issue. Graffiti is still a problem in and a blight on our society and our urban landscape. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this view.

Under the Litter Pollution Acts 1997 to 2003, primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to the defacement of structures by writing or other marks lies with local authorities. However, conscious of the problem of graffiti vandalism, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs initiated a pilot project, the graffiti removal operation, GRO, initiative, aimed specifically at combating graffiti in Dublin city, Galway city and Bray, County Wicklow. This project is separate from, and in addition to, the graffiti abatement programmes carried out on an ongoing basis by the local authorities.

The GRO initiative involves a major initial clean up of the worst affected sites in the pilot areas, followed by a rapid response cleaning maintenance programme aimed at maintaining sites free of graffiti. To date all sites in RAPID areas have been addressed and significant cleaning works have already been completed. Work has already been completed, or is in progress, in 19 separate locations in the Dublin City Council, Bray Town Council and Galway City Council areas. Sites affected by graffiti outside RAPID areas are being surveyed with a view to extending the GRO initiative. The pilot project is overseen by a steering group comprising representatives from the three Departments and an independent evaluation of the programme has been commissioned in order to determine the programme's effectiveness. Should the programme prove successful in eliminating or significantly reducing the incidence of graffiti, consideration will be given to extending it to other areas.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is satisfied that there are adequate powers under the Litter Pollution Acts to tackle the problem of defacement of property. Section 19 makes it an offence to deface property and section 20 is a complementary provision which enables local authorities to have remedial action taken. In addition to the Litter Pollution Acts, the Criminal Damage Act 1991 provides for the offences of damaging or defacing property. The Garda authorities take very seriously the damaging or defacing of property. The Garda has operations Encounter and Assist in place, focusing on tackling anti-social behaviour including offences of criminal damage, such as defacing property or the imposition of graffiti. When the Garda detects such offences, culprits are processed through the courts or via the juvenile liaison system, as appropriate.

On deterring young people from criminal behaviour, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform funds Garda youth diversion projects. These projects are community-based, multi-agency initiatives that aim to divert young people from becoming involved in anti-social and-or criminal behaviour by providing suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promote civic responsibility and challenge offending behaviour. The number of such projects has grown from 12 in 1997 to 64 at present, catering for approximately 2,500 persons per annum.