Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Where do the Government's priorities lie, given that a conference of the Army, the Garda and high level politicians was arranged to consider what should be done after six people did something wrong at Shannon Airport? I ask the question in the light of the fact that criminal gangs are rampant and terrifying communities. We are told that the latter problem is under control. Senator Maurice Hayes raised this issue on the Order of Business yesterday. The idea that the Army should be called in to deal with what is wrong and obviously embarrassing, at a time when we do not have the resources to protect people in our cities on Saturday nights or protect the public from criminal drug gangs, suggests that the Government's policy on fighting crime is essentially a public relations exercise and not linked to reality. It is high time that we had a debate on this country's real crime problems which are not found at Shannon Airport.