Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I join the expressions of sympathy to the Geoghegan family on the shocking tragedy that has befallen them. For many parents, such a tragedy is their worst nightmare. They stay awake at night fearing such a tragedy might befall their youngster on his or her way home.

While Shane Geoghegan's death is a shocking and dreadful incident, tragically there is a level of anarchy on our streets that must be dealt with. There is a consistent underlying level of anarchy on our streets at night. I agree with the view that membership of a criminal gang should become an indictable offence. I support Senator Harris's view that we must review our legislation and jurisprudence in the light of what we are dealing with here.

As a first measure, membership of a gang must be made an indictable offence. We must also introduce witness protection legislation and witness protection procedures. Such crime dictates — a point touched on by Senator Bacik among others — the need for intervention at childhood level. It dictates a reversal of the Government's reduction and under-investment in child care and in preschool education. If we invest in child care, preschool and primary education and have the right level of class sizes, we will deal with many of these problems at source.

The provision of drop-in cafés in our cities and towns for our youth is critical. I have been saying that for a long time.

I want the Leader to specifically take up the following point, which could be examined as an immediate practical response. Gardaí should be responsible for separate streets and districts in ours towns and cities. In other words, a garda would be responsible for street X——