Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

A major incident computer system will automate many of the functions currently being performed manually when a major incident occurs. We are proceeding with an automated number plate recognition system, an automated fingerprint identification system and an automated ballistic identification system. Closed circuit television systems will be put in place in all major county towns.

Senators are aware there have been major reforms to the Garda Síochána, including the appointment of the Garda inspectorate, led by former Boston police commissioner, Kathleen O'Toole, as well as the advisory group on Garda management and leadership development. As part of the programme of civilianisation, a new civilian head of administration at deputy commissioner level has been appointed. All these changes are designed to support and equip the Garda in dealing with the complex challenges its faces.

Other agencies involved in the criminal justice system are also receiving significant resources. We have been doing that through supporting a prison building programme to ensure when people are convicted, they serve their sentences. However, the growth of organised criminal gangs outside prison has had obvious consequences within the prison system. Despite the best efforts of the prison authorities, members of these gangs were able to obtain mobile phones trafficked into the prisons, thus allowing them to maintain their power bases and continue to plan their criminal activities from within the prisons. There has been a determined drive on this problem since my appointment. More than 1,600 mobile phones have been confiscated within prisons in recent months. Criminal bosses exercise influence within prison. As a result, prisoners who have affiliations to groups on the outside feel under threat from each other, and prisoners with no affiliations can be pressurised to join specific gangs. This is a serious position.

Recently the Government approved a package of measures to combat such organised criminal activities in the prisons. The number of prison officers is being increased to carry out dedicated security duties. A drug detection dog service and an operational support group specialised in searching for illicit materials are being established. Drug detection dogs have already been introduced on a pilot basis and operate in the Midlands-Portlaoise Prison, Wheatfield and Cloverhill prisons, the Mountjoy complex, and Cork and Limerick prisons. Security screening with X-ray or metal detectors for all staff and visitors entering prisons is being introduced, as are two segregation units for gang leaders in Cloverhill Prison. Some 160 staff are being fast-tracked through the recruit prison officer training programme to provide staff for these new security initiatives, and other steps are being taken to hire suitable staff quickly.

Electronic equipment to prevent the use of mobile phones has been installed in the Midlands Prison. Testing is under way and is expected to be completed very soon. The results so far are positive and, if confirmed, the equipment will be installed in all other closed prisons over an 18-month period. Mandatory drug testing across the prison system is being introduced now that the new prison rules have become operative. Additional resources are being introduced to allow prisoners access to addiction counselling and to improve the quality, co-ordination and availability of drug treatment in prisons.

I agree with the principal Opposition party when it says that gangland crime is a serious phenomenon. My first duty as Minister is to secure prisons against the writ of these gangs and then take the war onto the streets and confront them there. The Garda Síochána has introduced innovative policing methods and will continue to do so. Senators will be aware that Operation Anvil has been specifically directed against the activities of these gangs, especially in Dublin, but also in other parts of the country. Figures I received from the Garda Commissioner show that from its beginning in May 2005 to 9 September last, 768 firearms have been recovered, 37,437 searches for drugs have taken place and more than 70,000 checkpoints established. These figures make clear the unrelenting nature of the activity being undertaken by the Garda Síochána to deal with these problems.

Some debate is taking place at present on whether gardaí should be routinely armed and how the Garda Síochána should respond to the existence of armed criminals. It has been one of the great strengths of the force that its members do not carry guns as a matter of routine. I believe that is the way many members of the force want to keep it. At the same time, the force must be equipped to deal with the challenges it faces, which is why members assigned to particular duties carry firearms. Just under 3,500 gardaí are currently authorised to carry firearms and can be called on to do so as the need arises. This is a matter for operational decision by the Garda authorities, and these decisions are made taking into account the paramount importance of the safety of members of the force and the public. The balanced approach leaves the Garda authorities the operational discretion to use armed gardaí where they think fit, rather than going down the road of arming every member of the force.

The Garda Síochána Act gives me as Minister the power to determine priorities for the Garda Síochána. The Commissioner will continue to keep me informed of the measures being taken to meet priorities that are set. I am now in the course of determining those priorities for 2008 and have been consulting my colleagues about them. My intention is to prioritise areas such as gun crime, organised crime and drugs and public order. The priorities will emphasise the importance of profiling, intelligence gathering and threat assessments on the individuals and groups identified as involved in this type of crime. I intend to include in the priorities a specific reference to enhanced liaison arrangements between individual Garda divisions and the Criminal Assets Bureau in the pursuit of those engaged in drug dealing at all levels. As it is, profilers trained by the Criminal Assets Bureau are now present in every Garda division. The message should be clear: drug dealing by anybody on whatever scale is unacceptable and will be pursued. In addition I propose to set a priority relating to enhanced activities by the drugs units and the force in focusing on places throughout the country where the presence of drug dealing and the consumption of illicit drugs is likely.

It is clear that the Garda Síochána alone cannot tackle the problems of crime that we face as a society that has rapidly been becoming more complex and diverse. As a consequence, it is only through partnership between the different parts of our society that we can effectively tackle crime. As I want to foster that spirit, I attach great importance, as I am sure Senators do, to establishing a joint policing committee in each local authority area, as the Oireachtas prescribed in the Garda Síochána Act. These committees provide a forum where members of the local authority for an area and the senior Garda officers responsible for policing the area, together with Oireachtas Members and community and voluntary interests, can consult, discuss and make recommendations on matters affecting policing of their community. On the one hand, these committees should make policing more responsive to community needs. On the other hand, they should make the job of the Garda Síochána in tackling particular problems easier by providing a forum for co-operation with all the interests involved.

Some 29 committees are now operating on a pilot basis. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, and I are examining what lessons can be learned from the operation of the pilot and we intend to have committees operational in all local authority areas as early as possible next year. One of the priorities I intend to establish for the Garda Síochána is full and effective participation in the work of these committees.

I propose to include a number of priorities for the Garda Síochána relating to the expansion of the juvenile liaison scheme and the number of Garda youth diversion projects; the monitoring of sex offenders; combating homophobic and race crimes; co-operating with the newly established domestic violence executive agency, COSC, in curbing the problem of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence; targeting the use of knives in violent attacks; and taking measures to deal with the evils of human trafficking. The priority of dealing with terrorism, both domestic and international, will of course remain. Other priorities will cover areas such as road traffic law enforcement and immigration controls, which are not directly related to this debate. No significance should be read into the non-inclusion of particular types of crime in the priorities mentioned by me. Priorities cannot include all the functions of the Garda — setting too many priorities carries with it the danger in reality of setting none.

It is vital we ensure to the greatest degree possible that our young persons do not enter the criminal justice system as offenders or, if they do, that the system deals with them in a way that allows them to become full members of society again. The Children Act 2001, as amended, set out an effective youth justice system, one based on the principles of diversion from crime and anti-social behaviour, restorative justice, the expanded use by the courts of community-based sanctions and measures, and the use of detention in the case of young offenders as a last resort.

Recent measures have reformed our entire approach to youth justice through the establishment of the Irish youth justice service. Apart from the criminal law, we have a range of initiatives in place to get at the root causes of anti-social behaviour by youngsters. The Garda juvenile diversion programme has proven to be highly successful in diverting them away from crime by offering guidance and support to juveniles and their families.

Earlier this year, the Government approved a juvenile justice and child protection package. The number of judges of the District Court to be assigned specifically to these cases will increase by three. There will be 88 additional professional and administrative posts in the probation and welfare service. Young persons probation, a division of the probation and welfare service to deal with young people under 18, has been established.

I wish to make a point about the criminal law. There can be a tendency for no account to be taken of the fact that our basic criminal law, which has been on the Statute Book for years, continues to provide us with the fundamental armoury in the fight against crime. The obvious example is the law on homicide. Nevertheless, we have made extensive changes in the criminal law in order to adapt it to the modern realities with which we must contend. On the one hand we have people who say we have done too little and on the other hand there are those who claim we have had too much criminal law reform too quickly.

The Government and its predecessors have introduced a range of effective criminal legislation. Two substantive Criminal Justice Acts were enacted in 2006 and 2007. As well as addressing issues arising from organised crime, they updated procedural issues and addressed issues relating to lower level crime. The Prisons Act 2007 addresses serious issues relating to the conduct in prison by those sentenced for serious offences.

The 2006 Act criminalises, for the first time, participation in and assisting organised criminal gangs. It updates offences and penalties for firearms offences and introduces heavier sentences of between five and ten years for those offences. New drug trafficking offences are created covering the importation of drugs valued at more than €13,000 and the supply of controlled drugs to prisons. A new offence of possession of articles for use in connection with certain offences, including kidnapping, has been created. This offence has been extended in the 2007 Act to cover money as well as articles for use in connection with a range of serious offences.

I could say much more on the subject. I look forward to listening to Senators and to studying what they have to say.