Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Shatter, back to the House, his second time in a 24-hour period. He is before us to seek the renewal of what one must describe as rather stringent and almost draconian legislation. These times, from a criminal gang point of view, mean that we have little option but to accede to the Minister's request.

We had a substantive debate in the House on the original legislation, if I recall, in late 2008 or early 2009. The backdrop to that debate was what appeared at the time to be a significant increase in serious crime throughout the country and there was almost public hysteria about the fact that the Garda and the authorities seemed almost powerless to deal with the situation, in particular, with criminal gangs and drug gangs which appeared to be causing considerable destruction throughout the country. We had a substantive debate on the introduction of this legislation with then Minister, Dermot Ahern, and on the Fine Gael side of the House on that occasion was Senator Regan. Senator O'Donovan would have been contributing for Fianna Fáil. The merits and demerits of the legislation were debated in great deal at that stage. We all had to recognise, as is our duty, that we must always guard personal and civil liberties, but the case made then, which I think is being made by the Minister this evening, was that certain crimes and certain criminal elements are almost beyond the course of normal law and law-abiding mechanisms and this type of legislation needs to be put in place. I certainly support the retention of section 8 of the Act.

I note the Minister stated that people may be a little disappointed that we do not appear to have a clearer picture of the success to date of the broader elements of the Act, but progress can take time and cases can take a long time to run through the system. The message we are getting from the Garda Síochána is that it needs the retention of these measures. I think we have no choice but to come down on that side of the equation. To assure ourselves of the necessity of what we are doing here, we would want the clearest possible picture from a statistical perspective of the success of the Act and of section 8 which we are reinstating. It may be possible to give us some more detail from a statistical perspective of the numbers of cases and other such matters. Perhaps when the Minister has an opportunity to do so, he might present those figures to the House for consideration.

As the Minister pointed out, the powers of section 8 are quite severe. They are not the type of powers that he or many of us would like to be introducing, but the circumstances of 2008-2009, which, to use that awful phrase from another place, really have not gone away, leave us with little alternative. Communities throughout the country and not only in the greater urban areas have become victims, in particular to drug gangs and the resultant, often violent, robberies. Sadly, tackling these criminal elements, in particular the leaders of these gangs who are benefiting significantly in a financial sense from the resultant human misery, requires the reinstatement of these measures.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. Perhaps he would expand further, either in his response or at some stage in the near future by way of written correspondence, on the statistical evidence of which his Department is aware and which proves that this measure needs to be retained. We do not take these measures lightly. As Members of the Oireachtas, we have a broad duty to guard and protect the civil and human rights of every citizen of this country. I suppose the greatest civil and human right is the right to life. Others are the right not to be attacked and the right to be safe in one's home, street and community. Sadly, these measures are required to protect and vindicate those rights in this current difficult time of criminal gangs. I support the Minister's resolution.