Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments made by Senator Feargal Quinn on the courageous work of gardaí from Mill Street Garda station in Galway yesterday. They apprehended four men who had robbed €1 million worth of jewellery from Hartmanns jewellery shop on William Street. This unarmed force apprehended four eastern European gangsters who were armed with hammers and what turned out to be a false gun, although the gardaí in question were not to know this. The staff were threatened with violence and the gangsters scooped up €1 million worth of jewellery, but within less than 30 minutes gardaí were on the scene. They followed the gangsters whom they apprehended and arrested on the streets of Galway. They are now being questioned. I call on the Leader - I presume with the support of Senator Feargal Quinn - to write to the Garda Commissioner. The Leader and I were nominated to the Seanad by the representative bodies of An Garda Síochána.

An Garda Síochána has come in for a lot of criticism in recent years but we have an unarmed police force whose members had the courage and strength to apprehend these very serious criminals who were well organised. I ask that the Leader would write to the Garda Commissioner to commend the gardaí - the Superintendent and his team - in Galway on their speedy action in defence of Irish citizens and businesses. Anyone who runs a business realises that there is a constant threat from criminals who are very active at the moment and who are watching situations exactly like the one to which I refer. The livelihood of the Hartmann's staff would have been in jeopardy if this robbery had been successful.

Furthermore, I ask that the Minister for Justice and Equality would come to the House because we need scrutiny of all eastern European people coming into this country through the passport system. They all have to produce their passports here. Those passport details should be recorded and contact made with the police forces in eastern European countries to see if any of these people have criminal records. Nobody with a criminal record should be allowed into this State. We have enough criminals ourselves without importing them from eastern Europe. The level of crime that is occurring is very evident to me and this may be the start of a trend in that regard.

All in all, we should be very proud of An Garda Síochána in this particular instance as well as in many others which go unrecorded.