Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to follow up on a matter that was in the news yesterday, namely, the great success of the Garda in disrupting the flow of cocaine, a class-A drug, into the country. That has to be welcomed, and the resources the Minister for Justice has been putting into this area must be welcomed.

I am concerned about another issue. Perhaps the relevant Minister could come to the House to address it. I have had some alarming conversations recently with developers and builders. They are being heavily intimidated into paying protection money in respect of many of the sites they are working on. This activity is widespread. It has happened to a well known builder who has had State contracts. A head worker on a site contacted me about this, and I spoke to the guys further up the chain. Just by chance, I was working with a guy who is developing a site who told me how he was dealing with people who were intimidating him and looking for money. He fears that his machinery will be burned and his workers intimidated. In this day and age, that is not good enough. It seems to be wholesale across the industry. It would be worthwhile having a debate on this. We have spoken about a couple of different matters with the Minister for Justice recently, including the Garda handling of different issues. It might be quite helpful if we the Minister for Justice could come to the House to discuss these issues.