Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. I cannot say much in two and a half minutes; I understood there was more time remaining.

One gets the impression at times that the Government is saying, "What can we do about this problem" but there is a great deal that can be done. The former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Nora Owen, brought in the legislation establishing the Criminal Assets Bureau. When Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was Minister for Justice O'Connell Street was a no-go area and she sorted that out. To this day O'Connell Street is a very safe place compared to what it was in the past.

There are measures that can be taken but it is a shame that at this time the Garda budget is being cut by €85 million. In the two years since this Government took office, violent burglaries have increased by 48% and knife crime has increased by 38% yet the Garda budget has been cut by €85 million. That does not add up. The Government said it would bring the force up to its full strength of 16,000. It is not near that number and as Senator Cummins said, the civilianisation programme is rolling out very slowly.

There is much that can be done also in terms of the film industry. Violent films are being shown throughout the world, including in our country. Young people in particular are viewing those films which depict violent crime involving hand guns, machine guns, other types of guns and drugs and there is no doubt that they act out those films. Something must be done in terms of censorship of those type of films. Very few of the films I watch do not portray some form of crime. One would wonder why films without very violent crime cannot be made. No form of crime is acceptable in my view.

As Senator Cummins and Senator O'Malley said, whatever has to be done must be done to tackle this problem because we cannot let the position in Limerick get out of hand and be repeated throughout the country. That is happening because the people involved are moving out of Limerick to other towns and cities and repeating what is happening in Limerick. The slogan, "whatever has to be done must be done" is a good one to come out of this debate and the Minister of State should take it back to the senior Minister.