Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Many calls were made last week for a debate on anti-social and criminal behaviour following the tragic deaths in Dublin. The vigil which took place over the weekend underscores the magnitude of the issue we face. It is incumbent on us as legislators to recognise what is happening in our society and seek to do more about it. I call for a debate on the related issue of school attendance rates. One child out of every 20 has serious difficulty in regularly attending school while one in every five portrays frequent difficulty. When I attend meetings on truancy with schools and gardaí in the Dublin Central constituency, this is noted as the cause of much difficulty in the community.

If young children, particularly young boys, drop out of school and facilities are not in place to get them back into the system, they are left open and prone to many outside and malign influences that lead to criminal difficulties later in life. Will the Leader arrange a debate on this issue? We must also discuss how the National Educational Welfare Board is tackling the issue and how it is short of resources to ensure young people are supported to attend school regularly and open to positive influences.

I also call for a debate on how images of explicit violence are being mainstreamed in society. A current movie centres around people who are captured for torture. Last week's review of the film in The Irish Times stated it was another film about torture.

An advertisement for this movie on Dublin's O'Connell Street has an image of a man, manacled, being tortured. I call for a debate on the imagery young people's minds are being exposed to, particularly when advertisements and images far too regularly show men and especially women either being tortured or infer it. When extreme violence is mainstreamed by our entertainment industry, unfortunately it creates an environment in which extreme torture and violence are seen as mainstream as opposed to things we should deplore. If the Leader organises a debate on that issue, we would be able to contribute to it in a positive way.