Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Like Senator Harris, I come here with a non-legal mind. However, I come with a sense of justice and a sense that we need to put things back on the right track. I welcome the Bill, the backdrop to which is the increase in crime. I welcome the comments of Senator Harris that we should examine our entire criminal justice system; let us do so not from the perspective of the legal mind but from the perspective of the victim, the ordinary person living in the community who must endure crime. The Minister of State, Deputy Curran, knows from his Department that drug lords are selling drugs and preying on the most vulnerable targets in our communities. I live in Cork city where we are undergoing a huge heroin epidemic.

Gangs are roaming the streets of all our urban areas, in particular Dublin and Limerick. The elements of fear and surprise at the news of death or attack is gone. That is a very sad indictment of society and how we handle crime and those who perpetrate crime. They are criminals and thugs and deserve precious little, but conscious of civil liberties one must give them due process and I accept that.

I get upset because various categories of crime are increasing, including white collar crime. I never wanted to see the zero tolerance approach introduced by the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy John O'Donoghue, because that one-size cap does not fit all and does not lend itself to what we are doing. We need to re-examine the way our Prison Service operates and what function we want prisons to have. If we are serious about tackling crime we must have sentencing and rehabilitation but we must also enable people to see that crime cannot be made to pay in any shape or form.

I welcome the Bill and I commend the Minister of State. Like Senator Harris - I hate agreeing with him on everything this afternoon - I think Senator Regan had a very good Bill before the House earlier this year. However, we need to see the colour of the money within the Bill. The speech of the Minister of State, Deputy Curran, highlighted the various sections of the Bill but there must be overarching cross-party support for anything that can tackle gangland crime and can deter criminals from prospering in Irish society.

This afternoon on the Order of Business I raised the matter of a very interesting pamphlet received from the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee. It states that duty is not paid on 20% of the Irish tobacco market, accounting for one in five cigarettes consumed. This comes from illegal activity and represents €387 million of revenue lost to gangland and criminal activity. Any effort that can be made to allow the Garda, or whatever organ of security or defence we want to use, to prevent drug use and sale, gangland crime and illegal activities must be supported.

It comes down to addressing resources and investment in structures and I would love to hear the response of the Minister of State. We can have all the fine blueprints and great Bills but how will we resource the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions? How will we fund the national surveillance unit? If we are discussing the establishment of a DNA database, what will its structure be and how will we fund all these activities?

While I welcome the Bill, there must be assistance given in the carrying out of surveillance. There has always been surveillance by the Garda. In the estate in which I grew up, there were always gardaí and we knew they were watching certain people and doing certain things. We need to commend the work of the Garda. We all need to play a strong role in being vigilant with regard to crime. In stating this, we should not become completely negligent with regard to provisions on privacy and due process for all citizens, be it a fair and just trial or in terms of not invading privacy. However, in stating this, covert surveillance legislation needs to be introduced and needs to be a top priority of the Government in the context of tackling gangland crime and drugs.

This morning, Dr. Chris Luke, the emergency medicine consultant at Cork University Hospital and the Mercy Hospital, said, "The drug problem was all over the country but people did not seem to realise how big the problem was". He was referring to the recent concert in Slane, where drugs were freely available and people were walking around off their heads after consuming a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

Regarding drugs and the illegal sale of drugs, the Garda's hands are tied. In many cases gardaí know house X or person Y is involved, but they cannot catch the people involved because they cannot see them exchanging the product. The Minister of State and I are involved in our own briefs and know full well that gardaí want surveillance to be introduced. It is about time that was done. This is not a populist message. I have been in the houses of people who had debts to pay and whose children have committed suicide, and of families who have to endure thugs who are getting away with everything.

The Bill allows for the gathering and use of information. If one takes it in simplistic terms, a drug dealer or criminal has no difficulty in using technology and the State has an obligation to protect its citizens. It is important we tackle gangland and organised crime, have no respect for the people involved in that and use all the means and methodologies at our disposal to deal with it. The Bill is welcome. It is important that we put the resources and structures in place to tackle the issue, particularly of drugs which, as the Minister of State knows, is becoming a major crisis on our streets. I commend the Bill. I thank Senator Regan for his work. Perhaps Senator Harris's contribution on the whole structure of our criminal justice system should be looked at in a different debate. Senator Harris might call for such a debate at a later time.