Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to indicate my support for this Bill. On behalf of the Minister, the Government and the State, if this Bill can improve our relations with other international policing agencies, particularly in an ever bigger Europe of 27 countries and more, it is a positive step.

It is essential that we keep the pressure up. We will probably never have the utopian situation that allows us to eliminate crime but this legislation will at least tighten the noose on some of these criminal gangs and put pressure on them. That is what we must continue to do because not alone are they a threat internationally, they are also a threat to our society. They have an impact on every walk of life, whether it is in the Dublin metropolis, rural parts of west Cork or the west of Ireland. This legislation is welcome and I hope it will have a positive outcome in terms of trying to stymie the ever-evolving and ever-more-sophisticated criminals we are dealing with at the current time.