Dan Boyle (Green Party)

There is always a danger in debates about crime when politicians and even political parties put themselves forward as being the politician or political party most in favour of law and order. Nobody in public life is opposed to the law being properly applied and nobody in public life believes chaos and anarchy is preferable to order. The danger is if a person or party is put on a particular pedestal, there is an implication that people somehow accept the idea of serious crimes about the person, the existence of murders and the prevalence of weapons of personal destruction in society.

This is far from the case. Unfortunately, we have experienced an increase in the number of serious crimes in our society in recent years, but in international and European terms, the rates of such crimes are still very low. The problem is when debate and media reportage is conducted on these terms, we end up with something that is not a dialogue for trying to deal with the root causes or prevent the incidence of such crimes. Instead we have a glamourisation of serious crime, such as gangland murders.

There are incidents of gang activity and drug trade which sometimes result in killings. An analysis, however, demonstrates that most violent deaths in this country are caused by people known to the victim. Such analysis indicates many of these people are family members. In international terms, these crimes are of a relatively low incidence. To protect the ultimate victims, we should try to prevent the circumstances in which people commit these crimes.

Although we need to fight against people being killed by guns and knives, incidents of which we have seen in recent weeks, we must also face the fact that the most numerous of serious crimes against the person in this country are physical assaults. They can be seen on most weekend nights and many weekdays in towns, villages and cities. In my city it is not unusual to see accident and emergency wards dealing with the victims of such crimes.

People who die in gangland killings are painted in cartoon terms by news reporting which says they were known to the Garda. This leads to much reduced public sympathy for a life which seemed to be of less value than others. We seem to think the damage done in much of the fracas occurring every weeknight is a case of young men letting off steam. The reality is different. Many of these drunken fist fights and worse do not even fall under such neatly defined categories.

Young women gouge other young women. Some heroes of modern Ireland, fuelled with alcohol, believe it is fine to kick young women in the face and disfigure them. That is an example of the serious crime in this country. That is as much a responsibility of individuals and a failure of the society we have created than any lack of laws or resources being provided to law enforcement in this country.

If we want to identify why serious crime exists in this country and why the level of it is creeping upwards, we must ask why there is such a shortage of shame. Why is there a near-absence of remorse? These are the responsibilities we have as public representatives in dealing rationally with this subject. We could promote as many laws as we like but if those qualities are diminishing or lacking in society, we must fear for the type of society we are creating.

I would prefer a more apolitical and all-party approach. There is nothing to be gained by casting stones or name-calling on this issue. Those who are the victims of crime gain nothing from that and it does not stop the disfiguring, maiming or killing of people. We have a responsibility to try to bring out a different society in this country and I am not sure it is helped by motions of this nature. We must be more honest with each other as legislators and political activists. We have a shared responsibility for the type of society we have created. I would prefer if debates of this nature were conducted with this in mind.

I do not have any great confidence this will come about and I suspect we will return to this theme quite regularly. On the Order of Business each day there will be requests for more debates of this nature. Fingers will be pointed and accusations made and yet, as I have stated, it will change nothing in terms of damage done to individuals as a result of serious crime. Such crime does not exist because of the type of legislation or resources provided to the police. Its sole cause is the collective responsibility we have for the society we have created.

This problem will not be solved by accusations or finger pointing but rather by accepting this collective responsibility. I speak as someone whose own family has experienced this type of serious crime in recent weeks. If we engage in this type of pantomime politics, nothing will be added to the reality of people's everyday lives. We have no right to speak about crime as if it is something we can gain political advantage from. People live with it every day and we have a responsibility to diminish the fear engaged by debates of this type and media reportage so that people can live their lives in society free from such fear. Debates of this type will not help in bringing that about.