Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion, which was moved very eloquently by my colleague, Senator Gallagher who has a great deal of experience in law enforcement. I welcome the Minister to the House and wish him well in his important job, which in fairness he is performing in a very even-handed manner.

I wish to be constructive. We have an escalating crime problem in rural Ireland. Incidents are happening in rural towns all over the country that ten or 20 years ago we would have associated with major urban centres. What was common in Dublin is now common in Kerry, Limerick or Donegal. That is lamentable.

Many people in isolated rural areas are living in fear. We have experienced some tragic events involving elderly people trying to defend themselves, as best they can. Many of them are living in fear and that is no way for people to live. The greatest scourge of all is the expansion of the drugs trade. Most people get their information about drugs from reading newspapers and watching television. We form an image of the typical drug dealer. Members will be aware that I have some personal experience of addiction issues, although not drugs, but through that, I encounter many people recovering from drug addiction.The stories I heard in group sessions or therapy opened my eyes. One reads in the paper about people being apprehended by the Garda with large amounts of class A drugs while travelling, who are then put away for ten years, and one thinks they are the worst type of criminal. I have learned that those people come from respectable homes. They are decent individuals who have become addicted. The people who prey on such addicts will give them latitude in the early days, in order to establish and confirm that addiction by giving them unlimited access to drugs. They will then start upping the price. People using class A drugs require a lot of money which they do not have. Some people have sold their cars or even their houses to pay for drugs. Their parents have been threatened. People's cars have been burned out in their driveways because these serious crime operators will always get their money, and always follow through on their threats. If they threaten to beat up someone's daughter or burn one's father's car, they will do it. They will eventually get paid, at which point they will go away. The Minister knows better than do I how many lives they have wrecked. We must deal with the people at the top, rather than the victims or addicts who are caught every day of the week carrying small or large amounts of drugs. Most of them are addicts and few are professional criminals. The professional criminals are living in the style of princes and kings long ago. They must be rooted out because they are destroying the whole fabric of society in city, town, and country.

There also has been an upsurge of paramilitary activity lately, which was referred to in yesterday's debate on Brexit. I will not repeat what I said then. With the danger of a hard Brexit, these paramilitary thugs are setting up to come out of their caves or holes and will make their presence felt. It gives me no pleasure to be a harbinger of doom, but any type of hard border is going to be a serious factor for our Defence Forces, the Army and the Garda. We should spare no expense to ensure the Good Friday Agreement is upheld, and if we have to be geared up on a strong crime attack basis, then so be it.

I refer to the statistics on crime, which are not great. The recorded instances of drug offences have risen by 15% nationally in the last two years, while attempted murders are up 20%, weapon and explosives offences are up 14%, and kidnapping and related offences are up 22%. Many of these increases are due the ongoing feuds in places like Longford and Drogheda, to which my colleague has referred.

I revert to the drugs problem, although I acknowledge crime is not all about one issue. We need to raise education and awareness, as we are still a long way from where we should be. Because of my situation, I have some insight into how the whole thing operates, which was a big surprise to me. The Minister and the Garda have pulled off some great achievements in targeting and preventing crimes and assassinations, on which I congratulate them. The Minister must keep funding and supporting the Garda. I was never a man for law and order but the older one gets, the more one appreciates the quiet life. The Garda Representative Association, GRA, is a great organisation, which my colleague Senator Gallagher and I know well through our nomination to the Labour Panel. We know the members of the Defence Forces as well and they are all wonderful people. I have full admiration for them and ask that they are given full support.