John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch to the House.

I commend the provisions in this important Bill. It is, perhaps, housekeeping, a sensible piece of legal scaffolding or necessary infrastructure. I am surprised it has taken this long to put it in place but I commend the Minister and the Government for bringing it to this stage.

We enjoy all of the benefits, privileges and flexibility that have been brought to us by a European Union without frontiers and borders, and we have enjoyed the free movement of labour, goods and services. As anyone who has travelled abroad in recent years will be aware, a person can get into his or her car in Ireland and go to a football match in Poznan without meeting any roadblock, checkpoint or border control. Likewise, crime knows no boundaries and criminals certainly do not respect borders.

To some extent, we are coming late in the day to put in place this kind of infrastructure insofar as there has been a borderless Europe for decades. We are playing catch-up in such areas as sex offenders and human trafficking. The drugs gangs are exploiting this opportunity to drive across Europe and into Britain and Ireland unimpeded and unchecked.

As other Members pointed out, it is reeking havoc in communities. It is not merely an urban problem. While the Garda Commissioner pointed out that the criminal gangs operate out of the major urban centres, I was horrified in recent weeks that a man was shot down in his own home in front of his children in Portarlington, which is not by any means a big town. The impact of such organised crime of drugs smuggling has reached its tentacles into every corner and part of Ireland; it is not only a Dublin, Cork or Limerick phenomenon. We read in the newspapers in recent days of where criminal gangs are turning their hands to skimming credit cards and bank cards, and this is an international pursuit. We must get with it, get smart and get wise, and match up in terms of combating and preventing this crime. It is possible to do so.

Hardly a month goes by without the detection of serious fuel laundering operations along the Border with the North. It is damaging, in terms of the loss of revenue to the State but it is also crippling legitimate businesses and making it difficult for legitimate petrol stations and hauliers to operate and match up to such sculduggery. It is high time that we put the resources into this and this begs the following question of the Minister.

To what is extent is the Europol dedicated unit in Garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park resourced? There is very little point in paying lip-service to this type of co-operation without resourcing it.

People who came before the District Court in the midlands for offences such as stalking or sex offences were deported to their native country in the EU rather than being incarcerated here. Is there an exchange of information with the authorities in the countries to which these people are being returned? In the case I have in mind, the person convicted had a string of previous convictions in his native country, but such people are able to arrive in Ireland unimpeded. Are the Garda authorities notified that such a person is roaming the towns and streets of our country? It is a serious matter and not one that would be lost on the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch. I would like to have an opportunity to raise it directly with the Minister, Deputy Shatter.

I support the point made by Senator O'Donovan. We speak about modern policing and how it has evolved and that it is not necessary to have bricks and mortar and a Garda station at every corner in every village. I would go along with this, but it does not mean we do not need the personnel. We cannot have the shrinkage that has taken place in Garda numbers and resources and state gardaí are gathering information and intelligence on the ground. One cannot beat local knowledge, and the advantages of the relationship a local garda has in his or her community and organisations were well illustrated by Senator O'Donovan.

It is ironic that we speak about co-operation to prevent transnational crime throughout Europe when, I am ashamed to state, in towns such as Mountmellick people are accosted while bringing their children to school or driving up the streets. Some local shops and businesses have had to put locks and buzzers on their doors so they can allow people enter. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this and state we can continue to reduce front-line services. We must make savings, and we are under the cosh from the troika to reduce spending, but we must ask at what stage we enter diminishing returns. One could go through towns throughout the country the size of Portarlington and Mountmellick for a week or a fortnight and not encounter a garda on the beat or a Garda patrol car. This allows criminal elements, including organised criminal elements, to get on with their dastardly deeds virtually unimpeded because there is no one to keep an eye on them.

The cost to the State of criminality, trying to solve crimes and fighting a rear-guard action afterwards is greater than ensuring we have a Garda presence in towns. Having gardaí on the beat makes people feel safe and secure in their businesses and on the main thoroughfares. We cannot continue to reduce Garda numbers and suggest it has no impact on deterring and preventing crime, or on the feeling of security of people as they go about their daily routine seeing gardaí, as was traditionally the case, walking the beat in twos and meeting people or going through the town on a rotation in a patrol car keeping an eye out for ne'er-do-wells and criminal elements which would exploit an opportunity.

We have reached diminishing returns in the scaleback of numbers. The Garda Commissioner confirmed to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality that a further 1,200 gardaí are due to retire but the Garda training centre in Templemore remains closed. Even if it was re-opened next year it would take two full years before we had a new squad of young trained gardaí on the streets. We cannot be dismissive or offhand about this. Serious consideration must be given to this by the Minister and the Government. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to relay these concerns of people in towns throughout the country.

I welcome the broad thrust of the Bill. I hope it will lead to continued success in deterring criminal gangs operating in and out of the country.