Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Senator Norris, just referred to the Roscommon incident. There is no escaping the fact that land and its ownership run through the heart of what it is to be Irish. However, I sometimes think that we get the emotional side of the argument without getting the full facts. Clearly, there is high emotion across Roscommon and the west over what has happened. Many Senators will have sailed close to the wind with family debt at some stage as their lives changed. In my case, it was when my business failed. There is a requirement on all of us to engage with those who loaned us money. I have no idea why that family was being evicted other than there was an unpaid debt, which was put through the courts and on which the courts made a ruling. The method by which the family was evicted was outrageous. That people can come down from wherever dressed in black uniforms without identification marks, in some cases in vehicles that have no visible registration or tax discs, is not acceptable.

It is equally not acceptable for a shower of thugs to enter a property afterwards and beat up security officers who are working for the minimum wage. I have stood as a security officer in some of the most precarious places, places where I was scared stiff, for an entire night on my own. It is grossly unfair of any shower of thugs to beat up eight men.

First, we need regulation of such operators. Second, we need the full details. Third, I will call on the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to look at Facebook because the name and address of the county sheriff in Roscommon has been published on it today. The county sheriff is doing a job, the same as anyone else. None of this is going to put that family back in its home.