Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I rise to extend my sympathy to the Corbally family. Valuable life was wasted in cold blood. I commend the Garda Commissioner, Mr. Fachtna Murphy, on the sensitive way in which he spoke during the lunchtime news about the two young men's families and the teenager badly injured in the back of the car. I question how the good, honest and decent people of Neilstown in the Clondalkin area are able to live in peace and comfort. I support Senator Fitzgerald's call for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to attend the House urgently to debate justice and how we are dealing with gangland crime. Children number among all of these families, yet drugs, greed and money have become the catalyst for the degeneration of society. I urge the Leader to bring the Minister to the House to discuss how we are going to deal with the matter.

On another issue, Mr. P. J. Stone has come out strongly on the revolving door system in the prison service and the fact that the Thornton Hall project is not proceeding. Planning permission was obtained to build a road and monumental amounts of money have been spent on design teams, etc. It is clear the penal reform system is not working. We should have a debate on how we rehabilitate prisoners and persuade people not to take this degenerate route towards killing people without necessity. These two points need to be discussed urgently because we are talking about a breakdown of our society. People need to be able to live in peace and harmony without the threat of violence consistently hanging over their heads.