Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I want to join in wishing the Finnish people all the best on their day of commemoration. I welcome the ambassador to the House. It is a pleasure to have him.

Like many other people, we woke this morning to yet another report on our national air waves about the shooting of two individuals yesterday evening in the city of Dublin, and the sad passing of one of those people. It has become somewhat of a regularity. It is not just in the city of Dublin, however. We had the situation of a shooting in Ennis, although nobody was injured, thankfully. It is happening in other county towns around the country. I do not want to single out any one place. I certainly do not want to stray into what is happening in the courts at the moment as a very significant case is ongoing.If we are learning anything from that as it progresses, we are learning that just having gardaí on the street is not the solution to the problem. Good intelligence gathering is an important feature of it, but we need more specialist services. We need more covert operations in place. We need greater scrutiny of individuals. This applies to all our counties. I see it in the county that I have the pleasure of living in, County Clare, around Ennis and other towns in County Clare. I see individuals who seem to have the trappings of wealth with no visible means by which they could have it. We have to target individuals much more. We have to use the specialist services of the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. That will have to be devolved down to regional levels. It would be a far greater use of time now if we trained gardaí in those specialist services. I think there is actually more need for armed units. I do not believe we need to arm every police officer, or garda, in the country, but we certainly need that as a deterrent. There is a fraternity emerging now that has no regard whatsoever for law enforcement or those who try to patrol the area. I would like a debate in this House at the earliest possible opportunity with the Minister for Justice with a view to reorganising, to some extent, the attack on crime. It is not just the so-called gangs in the city of Dublin. There are little units developing all over the country and that needs to be targeted.

I was back in Doonbeg in west Clare last night. I was meeting with members of the local community, as others have done in the past. There is a situation where there is an old pipe network. It is the same throughout many counties in Ireland, but it is specific to west Clare. There is an old asbestos pipe network. As the ground dries out at certain times of the year, it cracks and breaks. People are being left for hours on an ongoing basis. The leak is fixed and it bursts somewhere else. It goes on day after day. People are finding it difficult, particularly those in the tourism sector. Could we have a debate, at the Leader’s convenience, with the Minster for the Environment, Climate and Communications? I accept that Irish Water is an independent entity, but we need to find a better way to address the investment in water infrastructure.