Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

Yesterday in Dublin west, another man was murdered. This is the 20th murder involving the use of firearms. It now appears a life can be taken at any time. This is one death too many. We have called on the Minister – we have debated this matter many times – to outline to this House how he intends dealing with this problem. All the Minister can say at a time when there is so much crime on our streets is that he is to close some of our prisons.

I support Senator Brian Hayes's call for the Minister with responsibility for local government to come to this House to outline how it is our local authorities will pay benchmarking Those in the commercial sector will have to foot this bill. It is unacceptable that local authority services will be cut as a result and the Minister should come to this House to explain to us when he intends adequately funding local authorities.