Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is very significant legislation and I am pleased to support the motion.

It is unfortunate that we need to continue to extend the legislation, but we have a serious problem with organised crime and gangland murders. Senator Power spoke at length about gangland crime in Dublin. There is no doubt that there is little respect for life among those criminal elements. We have a serious difficulty with violence and intimidation in organised crime. I am disappointed that Sinn Féin opposes the motion. I hear what Senator Ó Clochartaigh is saying about human rights, but where are the human rights for those innocent young people who are taken to the Wicklow mountains and shot in cold blood because they have failed to obey the orders of their criminal masters or delivered the goods? What of the rights of gardaí who are trying to protect citizens and are shot in cold blood, as we saw in County Louth quite recently?

As well as the awful murders in Dublin, we see down the country that organised criminal gangs have created havoc in local communities. They terrorised people in their businesses and homes. We must put the deterrence in place to ensure we have a system which is so tight that they are just about allowed to breath. We must stand together on this. We have elements of criminal activity which have devastating effects on commerce. We have seen huge involvement by criminal elements in diesel laundering and cigarette smuggling, which deprive legitimate businesses of the ability to make a livelihood.

The legislation is significant and in the interests of all citizens. I agree with Senator Ó Clochartaigh that we must at all times efficiently and effectively resource the Garda. In very difficult times, the Government is doing everything possible to ensure we maintain the Garda at the strength promised in the programme for Government. We must also ensure that we use our resources more efficiently and effectively. I want to ensure that the Minister continues to invest in patrol cars to ensure that pursuit vehicles are fit for purpose. We have improved our road network and we must ensure that when those people come down the country from Dublin, we have Garda vehicles which are capable of pursuing them at high speed. They have very little respect for human life and will put their lives and the lives of gardaí at risk. We must be equipped with the tools to ensure they are stopped in their tracks.

I commend the Minister of State on the motion. We must do everything possible to ensure our citizens are safe and that we have a justice system which brings those people to book and deals with them efficiently and effectively to put them out of business for once and for all.