Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir Norris fá choinne chuid dá am a roinnt liom.

Sinn Féin has no real problem with this Bill as the current witness protection programme is fairly ad hoc. Given the potential for wrongly handled witness protection arrangements to corrupt criminal proceedings or result in miscarriages of justice, Sinn Féin agrees this matter should involve clear guidelines underpinned by primary legislation. However, we are not that naive to think a witness protection programme is the key to tackling serious crime. Anybody whose sole focus in terms of fighting crime is to promote a witness protection programme shows themselves to be devoid of real solutions.

The impact of this legislation will be near negligible in the fight against gangland criminals. Communities want to be protected from criminals through effective on-the-ground policing and not through being hidden away from family and friends with a false identity. If society is to seriously tackle drugs and gun crime, it is essential the gardaí work in genuine partnership with communities using the resources available in the most effective manner. This means the civilianisation of administrative Garda tasks to free up approximately 4,000 fully trained gardaí to be redeployed into the fight against crime. Illegal drugs chains must be disrupted with the proceeds of drugs-related crime being channelled back into the communities worst affected by the drugs crisis.

Community input should be sought through the joint policing committees and the community policing forums to the Garda drugs units with a view to rolling out campaigns such as the dial to stop drug dealing campaign.

Sinn Féin, as the Minister of State knows, has produced a comprehensive set of proposals to tackle serious drugs and gun crime which it has presented to the Garda Commissioner and the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan. Some of our proposals have been merged in the latest recommendations for the Garda Inspectorate. If implemented, we believe our proposals will have a major impact on the fight against crime.

I commend the legislation and reiterate that we support it. However, we need to go much further if we want to seriously tackle drugs crime.