Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I hope some of the comments made in the House this morning do not receive a wider audience because the idea that we cannot have debates that might become political and upset a sensitive Minister of State is ridiculous, when we see that exactly the same debate is happening today in the Lower House. Let us get real about this. The Leader should ignore those comments. We should have debates in real time and not worry about them getting political. That is the nature of our political system.

At a time when organised crime is growing out of control in Limerick, there are a huge number of distressing crimes being committed across the country. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, to come here and present his solutions to what is happening with crime? I was distressed to hear that the Minister and the Garda Commissioner say that they have the resources and the ability to fight serous crime when clearly they do not. We are being made aware they are throwing open the doors of prisons across the country. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should be brought in here to should explain what is going on.