Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is a resource element in respect of our capital city. Looking at the number of gardaí per 100,000 citizens, the figure for Dublin looks quite good when compared with the rest of the country. However, this does not take account of the 6 million tourists who come to the city annually or the 200,000 commuters who come into the city every day. When those elements are factored in, it is clear that the resources in the capital city are quite low.

In my area I have seen community gardaí being used to police protests at the greyhound stadium. They have to do so because it is a public order issue. The resources are pulled away twice a week to police the entrance to the Google offices because of protests outside some of the social media companies in the area. At the same time, we do not have a community garda who could go on a regular basis into Pearse House.

In parts of the city, including Coolock, the north inner city and the south inner city, young people are being left behind. They see a booming city with some people making a lot of money, but their community being left behind. They see brand new blocks containing €1 million apartments while they are being left behind in dilapidated Dublin City Council housing built in the 1940s and 1950s with very little upgrade. Some of them recently only got a sink in their bathrooms.

I accept people make career choices. They do not have access to the educational opportunities that others have. In many ways I have sympathy for the Minister. He is suffering as a result of the period when the Garda College in Templemore was closed with no new gardaí coming out. The previous Government reopened the college and at last new gardaí are coming out, but they are simply replacing gardaí who are retiring.

Do task forces work?The south inner city local drug and alcohol task force, which is managed from St. Andrew's resource centre, offers second-chance employment courses and construction skills training. Some of those who attend the centre are ex-prisoners, who often go back to a life of crime. The centre has a success rate of approximately 60% at getting people into full-time employment. When we talk about breaking the cycle of crime, it is important to remember that it is poorer communities which suffer most from the loss of life and anti-social behaviour associated with that crime. Gangs are roaming the city and terrorising disadvantaged communities. The people living there are the ones who see the real effect of gang warfare and organised crime. I regularly get telephone calls from elderly people who are hoping it will rain that night so that some of these people might be off the streets. They are being terrorised in their own neighbourhoods.

I am not questioning the Garda Commissioner, who must work with the resources he has and deploy them where there is the highest risk. However, we must look to prevention, which is not happening, rather than dealing only with the aftermath of crime. In the south inner city, young people of 12, 13 and 14 years of age are dealing because they see it as their way forward in life and the best career choice open to them. As Senator Noone said, it is how they can buy the fancy watches and the best clobber. However, they do not get the best education because their schools are not adequately resourced. The voluntary payments are not forthcoming to pump extra money into those schools so that the children attending have equality of opportunity with children in the richer parts of the city. We must remember that the people who come to the inner city to purchase drugs are fuelling drug crime in the north and south inner city and areas like Coolock. That is something we must not stand over.

I join Senator Ó Ríordáin in his call for a task force. It must be multifaceted in its approach because policing alone cannot resolve the problems of the poorest communities in our cities. This is not just a problem for Dublin and we are already seeing drug crime spreading out to other areas. That is a consequence of the market economy of which we hear so much from economists. Dealers are extending their markets to Mullingar, Athlone and Portlaoise because of the drive for profit to support their expensive lifestyles. It is difficult to persuade a 13 or 14 year old to stay in school and work hard and they can have a bright future when their postcode will go against them when they apply for a job. They see their future as being in the low-level criminal activity - "low-level" is not my description of it - of drug dealing. We have difficult decisions facing us. We can work to ensure that all sectors of society share in the recovery rather than allowing only the wealthy to do so. We must put additional resources into the most marginalised communities. The south inner city local drug and alcohol task force has been somewhat successful but it needs to go much further.

Senator Noone referred to the figures showing an increase in crime. The problem is that there is no quick fix for this problem. We need a long-term strategy and gardaí must win back the confidence of people in the affected communities.