Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach and others will be aware that overnight a landowner and business owner in my constituency has been elected as President of the United States. Obviously, we want to send him and the country our best wishes. Let us hope that kind of divisive rhetoric that was very much part of the campaign will now be set aside. I am mindful of the comments of a former Governor of New York, Mr. Mario Cuomo, when he said that in America, they campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Let us hope that at some point in the not too distant future we can see that kind of bile and rhetoric that was part of the campaign set aside. America, as a world superpower, plays a really important role in the lives of so many people across the globe. Let us hope that from an Irish and European perspective, we can find some common ground to work towards in addressing the very many crises we face.

On a domestic note, I am conscious that we are in the dying days of this Administration. Those of us who are knocking on doors will be very familiar with some of the issues that are coming up. One that is raised on a nightly basis is the issue of petty crime, a lack of law and order and antisocial behaviour. Much of it is emanating from petty criminal gangs and maybe more minor criminal gangs. We have come to assume that when we talk about criminal gangs, it is the Hutches, the Kinahans or whoever. However, there are other criminal networks dotted throughout the country in every medium-sized town and village. We need to target those. I hope the next Administration will seek to put in place a special unit within An Garda Síochána to target those criminal networks that are wreaking havoc and instilling fear in villages and towns right across Ireland and, in particular, in areas of the constituency of County Clare.