Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Martin Conway should contact the Irish Council for Civil Liberties which will point him in the right direction. The Government would be better off in tackling crime by reversing its closure of almost 140 Garda stations, the 10% cut in the number of Garda personnel and the loss of hundreds of Garda vehicles, as well as ensuring the Garda fleet is up to scratch and the serious crime and white collar crime bureaux are adequately resourced, not by retaining this repugnant provision. Last week I was present at a presentation by Women's Aid. The Minister is aware of its annual report. Women's Aid was damning in its criticism of conditions in Dolphin House, for example, where people involved in family law cases are in a desperate situation. That issue needs to be tackled.

Sinn Féin made a wide range of realistic and potentially effective proposals for tackling serious crime in our document, Policing with the Community, in 2009. These urgently required measures include an expedited and far-reaching process of civilianisation to free up fully trained gardaí from administrative and other duties to fight crime; increased funding for Garda drugs units, with an enhanced community input into their use and priorities and independent oversight of informer handling practices to prevent situations from developing where individuals with a relationship with gardaí are allowed to amass a criminal empire; enhanced Garda visibility and activity in areas experiencing chronic drug problems; and the provision of more sniffer dogs.

We fully recognise that the vast majority of serious crime is drug-related. Therefore, we have also compiled and submitted to the Government detailed proposals aimed at maximising both demand and supply reduction measures.

I urge the House to vote against the renewal motion and demand that the Government properly resource the agencies involved in the fight against serious crime. I stand here with a mandate which it is important to recognise. If Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party are as strong in the views as they have expressed tonight, perhaps in the next general election in the Six Counties they might put up some candidates there.