Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Everyone recognises the serious crisis in the rate of crime. Everyone from Wexford to Westport, or Waterford to Walkinstown, has been either directly affected by crime or knows someone who has. People do not need to hear statistics to know that incidents classified as assault, arson, drug offences, robberies, and fraud have increased by over 22% in the first quarter of 2007, according to the Central Statistics Office figures released yesterday.

Deputy McDowell has the worst legacy of any Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the history of the State. He has talked a good game — he is well able to talk — but has fallen badly on implementation. Is this Bill really concerned with a significant restructuring of the criminal justice system? Is it genuinely motivated by a desire to deal with expanding problems in the areas of bail, sentencing, and the right to silence? Is it a sincere attempt by a Minister leaving office to right the wrongs of the past five years or is it a purely political stunt designed to take policies from the Opposition for the coming general election campaign?

I am delighted to see so many Fine Gael ideas at the centre of this Bill. The Progressive Democrats need every decent policy they can lay their hands on for this election but does the Minister of State think that this posturing can fool the public for one minute? Does he suppose that the people will not realise the Tánaiste has been Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the past five years but has been seized only in the dying weeks of this half decade with a desire to do something about the problems that Fine Gael, Labour and other Opposition parties have been shouting about for the past few years?

The Minister of State says that the Bill is being rushed through because its provisions are so urgent. They have been urgent for the past five years and nothing was done about them. They have been needed since the first gangland assassination, headline crime figures started to creep upwards, people started to feel unsafe in their homes and detection rates began to plummet. They have been essential since this Government took office but it has only put on a spurt when the election is all but upon us.

There are other urgent matters absent from this Bill. The Minister of State said that the witness protection programme is so urgent that there should be no limit on funds available yet there is very little here to deal with witness protection or several other urgent areas.

In respect of what is included, I am particularly pleased to see the provision in section 11 to provide for tagging of certain persons released on bail. Fine Gael raised this issue recently when it formed part of our leader's speech at the party's Ard-Fheis.