Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. This is a very important Bill. In her very fine address, the Minister evoked the memory of the late Veronica Guerin whose story demonstrated the need to create the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. It is important when looking at CAB, crime and assets that we remember the work of Barry Galvin in that time. As the Minister said in her speech, the model is one that is now used across the world. We must ensure, arising from the Bill, that gangland crime is not condoned or accepted in any shape or form. The glamorisation of gangland crime on television forms in the impressionable minds of some an aspiration in the way television programmes about the Mafia did in the past. The reality on the ground is that people die and lives are ruined. People are affected. It is not like television where one can switch it off or change the channel. This is real life and it has implications and an import for people's lives. This morning, someone was seriously injured on foot of whatever motivation. People are killed. It is critical that we resource gardaí and work with the Commissioner in the delivery of policing. That is why it is important that those in organised crime are hunted down and brought before the courts and that their assets are taken from them.

The Minister has been very proactive in her response and is on the side of the person in the community whether, as I said on the Order of Business, he or she is in north County Dublin, south Dublin, Cork city or whatever other part of the country. The Minister referred in her speech to CAB's powers and we need to ensure the lacuna there is addressed. As we move towards the budgetary Estimate in the autumn, it is clear to many of us that if we are to deliver a new type of policing, the Garda must be provided not only with the physical human resource of increased gardaí but also new equipment and that we must also address issues around pay and conditions. As such, the Minister has been pioneering and instrumental in the last Dáil and Seanad in seeking to recruit more gardaí and to reopen Templemore and in placing a greater emphasis on the need for properly resourced patrol cars. It is important we ensure the work of gardaí is supported and that we pay tribute to them on the huge amount of work they do. They put their lives at risk. Those of us who serve on policing forums nationally recognise the availability and decency of gardaí. We can never concede to the men of violence who operate in some parts of our country. They have no place in our society, represent a minority and it is time we stood up to them. I heard some people speak today about witness intimidation. We cannot allow that to continue and should also be on the side of those who stand for law and order.