Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Last Saturday evening a young mother was brutally murdered as she attended a birthday on the north side of this city. This case highlights again the control gun culture has over this country. It is the responsibility of the Government to ensure security for all our citizens and that the legislation it deems appropriate is in place and effective. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform stated this morning that it takes time to bring in legislation. Why has the Criminal Justice Bill, which was first published in July 2004, not yet reached Committee Stage in the other House? Why has the Government not even published the promised amendments to the Bill, which would outlaw gang membership and allow for an amnesty in respect of firearms, despite a commitment by the Minister that this would be done last year? This is a case of Parliament falling behind the times, not doing its job and not implementing laws that need to be made to track down and prevent the activities of those who are high on a cocktail of drugs and guns. The Government, which produced this measure nearly a year and a half ago, has responsibility to pass it in the Houses and implement it.

My colleague Senator Feighan spoke regularly over the past three months about the rise of cocaine use throughout the country. The well-to-do coke-snorting set should realise that their use of this new drug over the past five years — their double life — is ensuring that gun crime is spiralling out of control. We have a responsibility to say this is unacceptable to all sections of society. Last night, gardaí caught a driver on the South Circular Road with €500,000 worth of cocaine and a young girl was in the car at the time. This seizure shows the epidemic nature of the problem we face. The Government has a responsibility to introduce the Bill it promised a year and a half ago, to stop lecturing the judges and the Garda and to do its job in both Houses.