Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I wish to focus on the conflict in Limerick city, which has been in the news in recent days. The level of family feuding there is unparalleled in other parts of the country. Why has this happened? It is due to drugs.

The Programme for Government spoke about providing resources to deal with the drugs issue. There is an acute problem in Limerick with the provision of resources. A total of €7 million was promised to provide adequate facilities in the main Garda station in Henry Street. There is no incident room in that station. There is an incident room in the Mayorstone sub-station but although the station covers about 40% of the population of Limerick city, it is only open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday and for a short time on Sunday. The image it projects, therefore, is wrong. The gardaí have not worked an hour of overtime since last July and they are investigating a series of murders. There have been 38 murders in the Limerick area since 1997.

There is a great deal of fear in the area. There is also fear among the gardaí, that they might be followed by people. They are fearful for themselves. The fear results from the number of assaults that have occurred, the stone throwing attacks on Garda cars and the fact that, in many cases, checkpoints are not manned by armed personnel. Armaments are rife in Limerick and that generates fear.

The root cause of the problem is drugs. It all comes down to resources. The GRA representative in the area said that all Garda resources are dealing with criminal activities and cannot get involved in ordinary routine work and patrol duties in the Limerick city area. There is something wrong with that. I have seen debates on television in which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Minister of State at that Department have said there are ample resources. However, the GRA and the people on the ground say something different. Unless we get to grips with the issue of resources and the drugs problem in Limerick, this family feuding will continue.

It must be acknowledged that a climate of fear prevails in the city. It ultimately results from drugs. The Minister spoke exclusively about drugs and what the Government is doing about it but he made no reference to the criminal activities fuelled by drugs. That is the problem in Limerick. The sooner proper resources are provided to tackle the problem, the better.