Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It is important that we build trust in communities as successful prosecution requires evidence and witnesses must be encouraged to come forward through strengthening witness protection schemes and increasing the powers and numbers of community gardaí.

We have already had a debate on drugs and I echo the comments of my colleague, Senator Norris, that we need a radical review of our drugs policy. We are already rightly providing methadone to registered addicts. Increasing methadone provision is held by those who have analysed this to be largely responsible for the large decrease in property crime in the late 1990s. We must be clear about the need to increase funding for heroin addicts to ensure that they are given access to methadone treatment.

We also need to examine prison policy. In that regard, I would challenge those who suggested it is a positive development to have more prison places. Containment is not the answer. We need to examine the rehabilitation of those who are in our prisons to seriously take account of the critical comments of the committee for the prevention of torture on the dreadful conditions of our prisons, notably Mountjoy and St. Patrick's. I ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform why the Connect project, an important one for the rehabilitation of prisoners within the system, has been discontinued.

If we are serious about tackling crime we need, as previous speakers said, to tackle the causes of it and to examine the rehabilitation of offenders. We need to examine serious measures to increase trust within communities and to build successful cases to ensure that the persons responsible for crime will be convicted but that in the process we do not trample unduly on the rights of accused persons.