Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I join my colleagues in sympathising with the family of Shane Geoghegan, members of the Garryowen rugby club and the people of Limerick. I feel most strongly about the 135 people who have lost their lives in recent years. I think of Baiba Saulite and of those poor children who were almost burnt alive in a car in Limerick. I wonder about leadership and whether this Government is providing it.

Yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, said that every resource would be provided. I am aware, however, that overtime has been cut and Garda radios are so antiquated they have RTE 2FM breaking through. The Garda does not have digital radios. Worst of all, in respect of the attacks on women in Athlone, we have no DNA database. I had a conversation with Kathleen O'Toole, chief inspector of the Garda Síochána inspectorate, who said that such a database was the single most important police tool when she was working in Boston. People's DNA could be taken and the police then had a bank of data which could be used to convict the thugs, as Senator Callely called them. I ask the Leader for a serious debate on methods that might be used to convict. It is an outrage that 12 years is the maximum sentence given to people who commit murder. They are back on the streets within 12 years and this is not long enough or good enough.