I move:
That Dáil Éireann is of opinion that the extent and level of crime, violence and lawlessness in this country at present amounts to a serious emergency and calls on the Government to undertake immediately, a comprehensive national campaign to deal with the situation as a matter of extreme urgency and for the purpose of this campaign to: (1) involve local authorities, voluntary organisations and education authorities, (2) provide all the equipment and resources necessary, and (3) recruit adequate numbers of Gardaí and other personnel.
This motion in my name and in that of the Chief Whip of my party is, very probably, one of the most important Private Members' motions that will be discussed in the lifetime of this Dáil. I am certain that there is a great measure of agreement with and acceptance of the fact that the extent and level of crime, violence and lawlessness in this country at present amounts to a serious emergency situation and that some new approach, some new thinking and some new methods must be introduced and got under way immediately if we are successfully to protect society from the criminal. Crime, violence and lawlessness, and now drug abuse, have reached crisis proportions and unfortunately all the indications are that the situation will get much worse in the years ahead unless we go to the very root of the problem at this stage and launch an all-out attack on everything and anything in society that contributes to the creation of a criminal.
During the past decade substantial changes have occurred here in the nature of known crime as well as its quantity. Over all crime has increased from 30,756 in 1970 to over 70,000 in 1980, a massive increase of about 140 per cent. We have no option but to think of new ways of approaching this situation. We never had all the State agencies or State supported bodies working together at any given time in dealing with crime. We were incorrect in leaving all the burden of the fight against crime on the shoulders of the Garda Síochána. Despite their best efforts the Garda Síochána could not hope to do more than contain the crime level, for reasons outside their own control. Indeed, I am sure every Member of this House is proud of our police force. Ever since they were established they have worked well; they have been noted for their integrity and efficiency and their superhuman efforts to protect people and their property. Indeed, they are asked to perform duties for which they are not properly organised from the point of view of equipment. We have had evidence of that in recent months. I say this at this stage because the last Government gave a firm commitment of acceptance to the Garda of the recommendations of the Commissioner's report to me as Minister for Justice in August 1980 on the review of plans dealing with prevention of and protection against armed robberies and more serious crimes. I would hope that there would be no backing away from this commitment. The moneys must be found to give the Garda the facilities which are needed urgently to do the work which is expected of them. I will not develop this point now. I merely mention it to give ample warning to the Minister of where we, on this side of the House, stand on this matter.
The Garda Commissioner's report on crime for 1980 was published earlier this year and was presented to my successor. It makes frightening and disturbing reading. It shows another dramatic increase in indictable offences, almost 13 per cent over the previous year. There was an increase of over 5,000 offences in the larcenies group over the previous year and there were 73,000 indictable offences recorded for the year. I understand that the unofficial figures for 1981 show another huge increase in this area. It will be freely admitted in this House that the accuracy of the figures contained in the Garda Commissioner's report is often questioned because many crimes are not reported to the Garda.
There is obviously a crisis situation here that urgently requires our attention. In his report the Garda Commissioner is ringing the warning bells for all of us to see for ourselves the magnitude of the task facing the Garda Síochána. He emphasises that the Garda Síochána are but one agency with responsibility for the maintenance of public standards of behaviour as exemplified by the law and says that only a determined effort by all those with such responsibilities will stem the increasing degree of disrespect for good order in our society. He warns of the urgent necessity of having the full weight of public opinion and action turned against criminals of all classes. These are the words of the Garda Commissioner in his introductory remarks to the crime report of 1980.
This report shows that 57 per cent of all indictable crimes recorded — and that is a total of almost 42,000 offences — takes place in the Dublin Metropolitan area. The report goes on to show that 70 per cent of all indictable crimes — and that is 70 per cent of 73,000 — were recorded in the Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford city areas. This pinpoints the difficulties that we must pay attention to. On deeper study of crime reports for the different years it is shown that certain areas have higher crime rates than others. It is also shown by other studies that persons convicted of crimes have similar backgrounds. Unfortunately there are many families living in most dreadful housing conditions.
There are large families with up to eight or ten children living in a few rooms, perhaps one or two, without basic amenities such as bathrooms and toilets and, tragically, the father and mother are unemployed and have no hope whatsoever of employment for themselves and they despair for the future of their children. Many of the children in these areas cannot read or write at school leaving age. There are not many amenities provided for these children. Admittedly some progress has been made but far too little. Some amenities have been provided but what was provided came too late. It is a fair criticism of our society to say that the minimum is being done for people in areas where the maximum help is urgently required. Unfortunately, they are nobody's children and have no hope for the future. It is inevitable that many of these people drift into crime. Surely their environment is a breeding ground for young criminals?
There is information available to show that many people living in areas such as I have described believe that stealing is quite permissible, providing one is not caught. They readily admit this. They also believe that, in a case of necessity, it is permissible to steal, but they decide what a case of necessity is and when it would arise. It is also fair to say that these socially deprived people are what society has made them. They are the products of their environment and the predictability of their entry into crime is as sure as night follows day.
I am talking about crisis areas which merit emergency attention of the sort I am advocating in the Private Members' motion. These areas are readily identified from the Commissioner's report. They can be identified from newspaper reports on crime and every Deputy can readily identify areas I am talking about. These areas deserve a different type of attention than they have got up to now. A new approach and a more fundamental view should and must be taken of the difficulties in existence. I am strongly advocating a preventative approach to crime at this stage. I am advocating a comprehensive national campaign involving local authorities, because of their planning, development and housing responsibilities to people in the areas. I am advocating the involvement of educational authorities because of the very special needs of the people in these areas which are not being catered for at present in the way they should be. I am advocating also the involvement of the industrial promotional and training authorities because of their responsibilities to provide and train people for employment. The health and welfare agencies should also be involved because of the enormous role which they have to play.
The voluntary organisations must also be involved. It is fair to say they are already involved, doing tremendous work for the deprived of the areas. At a later stage I hope to detail the type of involvement with voluntary organisations and make a case for greater involvement by them and greater financing of them from the Exchequer, so that their work may be carried out on a greater scale than at present.
The national campaign which I am calling for would surely be the basis from which all Government Departments and agencies, working together with the voluntary organisations, could, for the first time, work together in trying to deal with the root problem of crime as we know it today. By doing it as I have suggested, we would be tackling all the reasons which help to make criminals. This can only be done and the success of this approach can only be assured if it has the full backing and active support of the Government. The underprivileged of those areas only make national headlines normally as a result of their criminal actions. By then it is almost too late to help them because the majority of people in our prisons are habitual returnees. If ten or 15 years ago, we had had the foresight, wisdom, courage and interest to do what I am now advocating, we would not have the crime rate which exists today. The Garda Síochána have a tremendous input in this area, in crime prevention and crime detection. They are fighting a lone battle on our behalf. Society is deeply indebted to them for waging a constant war on crime on our behalf.
This year, during my Ministry, improvements in Garda services to the community were introduced. One of these improvements, the increasing of street patrols and Garda surveillance, has been extremely successful and greatly welcomed by all. Every Member of the House will agree that more gardaí on patrol has a deterrent effect on criminals. I know that is the considered opinion of the Garda Commissioner. I presume it was still his opinion when he requested permission to recruit an additional 2,000 members so that this type of Garda and other service which would help defeat criminal activity could be given. We are at present recruiting 1,000 new members to the Garda Síochána. There is a recruiting campaign going on and anxiety is being felt on this side of the House — and on the Government side — at the slow way in which the campaign is moving. When the present 1,000 recruits are trained, there is a further commitment to an additional 1,000 new recruits. This figure would bring us to the maximum allowed by law to the Garda Commissioner as a result of the existing ranks order which we passed in the House about 12 months ago.
I am not happy with existing methods of recruiting which I consider to be painfully slow. I respectfully suggest to the Minister for Justice that there is urgent need for reorganisation of recruiting methods which must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. I said to the Minister last week in the course of the debate on the Estimate that we will have to recruit and train the people that the Commissioner has requested and which he has been given permission to recruit as quickly as possible. From what the Minister said last week, it appears that, even with the best will in the world, only 300 recruits will complete their training in Templemore in 1982. Can we afford the luxury of such delays in recruiting new members to the Garda force — new members who are so urgently required — that at the end of 1982 the Garda Commissioner will have only an additional 300 newly-trained members? If this is so we must recognise the fact that those 300 members would also have to provide personnel to cover positions vacated by retiring members of the force or members lost through wastage, which would amount to 150 for 1982. Therefore, the commissioner would have only an additional 150 extra members at the end of 1982 to help him with the serious problem which exists in the curtailment of crime.
Even the additional net increase of 150 must be broken down to see what real strength the commissioner would get from that figure in having people available for work. Because of organisational practices in operation within the force, the net increase of 150 new members can mean that only approximately 35 would be available for full-time duty at any given time. Any Deputy from an urban constituency could honestly and justly request a full number for any Garda station in his own constituency and make a proper case for it.
I was somewhat thrown aback at the mention by the Minister that only 300 gardaí would complete their training in Templemore in 1982. I had plans, resulting from discussions with the Garda Commissioner and officials of the Department at that time, for the training of upwards of 900 recruits in 1982 and that all of these would work in the metropolitan areas. Circumstances have pushed that aim aside. With the crime rate soaring as it is, a very special and determined effort must be made immediately to give the Garda Commissioner the manpower he so urgently requires. This necessary manpower should be given to him immediately and not in annual instalments of 150 gardaí or twice that number. New thinking is required here as a matter of urgency.
In Government the Minister for Justice must be able to overrule the crippling, petty restrictions which are being imposed on him by the Minister for the Public Service and which are preventing officer posts in the Garda Síochána from being filled, posts which urgently require filling and which have been vacant since 21 July last. It is very easy for someone in the Department of the Public Service to say that 20 or 30 vacancies at sergeant level should not be filled, but that does immense harm and damage to the morale of the Garda force. We know from the newspapers that the Minister for Justice had to meet the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors recently to hear their grievances on the effect which this embargo has on the morale of their members. It was reported that the Minister gave this deputation a courteous hearing, but said that he would not have an answer for them for a week or two afterwards. In not filling these posts he is probably saving about £4 per post per week, because the difference between the maximum of the garda grade and the minimum of the sergeant's is not great. Indeed, it has always been a bone of contention between the sergeant members and the gardaí that the differential between the two ranks is small.
The sergeants who were promoted 18 months or so ago knew what to expect — service on the Border. Having completed their service, there was a gentleman's agreement between the commissioner and the association that they would return to the areas from whence they were promoted, but that has not been done. This is a petty restriction which I would encourage the Minister for Justice to meet head on in Government with his colleague, the Minister for the Public Service, telling him that in the interests of security, of good police work, of having a force which will be on its toes, ever vigilant and knowing the right method for combating the criminal, there is no room for the petty thinking of the Minister for the Public Service in this area.
The Garda Commissioner could well do with an additional 5,000 members in the Garda Síochána if he is to give the services to our community which are being demanded of him. The taxpayers are prepared to pay for these services. I assure my successor in office of my support for him any time he comes to this House seeking money to pay these additional gardaí.
The motion which we propose here, if implemented, will be the start of a major breakthrough against the criminal elements in this country. The present Minister and every member of his party could tell this House, if they wished, the position in regard to crime in the areas which they represent. We learn the situation when we read the papers, not just the evening papers, which cover the Dublin scene, but the front pages of today's Cork Examiner, where the president of Cork Chamber of Commerce, Mr. McHenry, calls for support for the Gardaí in their ever-demanding task of maintaining law and order in Cork. He mentions the recent spate of malicious and stupid damage caused by hooligans in Cork city centre and says that that is a warning which the public can only ignore at their peril. He asks if Cork city is to join the growing number of urban jungles in which it is not safe to walk or to leave property unprotected. According to the president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce, that situation exists in Cork today.
Around last April, street patrols were introduced, on the suggestion of the Garda Representative Association, as a method to be tried in an attempt to defeat the street criminal and the vandal, to protect old people, particularly in their homes, but also to protect their homes when they leave to do their shopping. It should be recorded in the Department of Justice that the Garda Commissioner was urged to instruct his chief superintendents to take on as many men and women as possible to patrol the areas where there was a need for it. When the first suggestions came in as to the manpower which would be required, having listened to Deputies in this House and to deputations — which was one of the more enjoyable tasks of my work as Minister for Justice — I decided that not enough was being done, that they were being overcautious in not making enough demands on me as Minister for Justice. I suggested that they should have a further look at the situation and make sure that every superintendent and chief superintendent knew that he was being told by the Minister of the day to put the manpower on the street to protect the citizens and their property and see to it that people could go about their normal business. I believe that this was a success. However, if it was a success then, according to the president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce, it was not at all a success in Cork city.
Would the Minister, when he has an opportunity, tell the House whether or not demands for increased street patrols were made by the chief superintendent of Cork city? If there were, were they refused? If the chief superintendent did not look for these extra patrols, why have we a situation, as reported in today's Cork Examiner, in which the Garda Commissioner told his chiefs in the different divisions that the manpower required by them to protect the people would be given to them on application? That being the situation, there is something radically wrong in the city of Cork. If the demand was not made, why was it not made? It surely could be an indictment on the Garda chiefs in that city that they were not in touch with the situation as outlined by the president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce who calls for support for the Garda. Of course everybody will support the Garda but unless there are sufficient numbers of men on the ground pious statements asking the people to support the force are no more than wishful thinking. In the sort of situation we are talking about what the Garda need is the support of their fellow members in terms of numbers.
Within the ambit of the Department of the Environment there are a working group who have been dealing with the problems of the inner city but I fear that this group have not been as active as they should have been. If their work was activated to a feverish pitch, activated with persons who would be dedicated to dealing with the problems in this area, they could do tremendous work. I am aware that other bodies are involved in different projects in the city-centre area. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle in his capacity as Minister of State in the Department of Education in the last Government did tremendous work by way of the provision of moneys under the Youth Employment Scheme. During that time the inner city projects were allotted funds to the extent of £30,000 in 1977 and that amount was almost doubled in 1978. The figure was doubled again in 1979 when it was £122,000 and for the earlier part of 1980 the amount was well up on average in terms of what was being done. There were many worth-while projects being undertaken in this area by voluntary groups. Such groups in the context of the type of national campaign we are calling for can do tremendous work and offer much help to those families who are most in need and also in keeping young people out of trouble.
Is it not a shame that within 100 yards of O'Connell Street, in a street that is no longer than 400 or 500 yards, there are approximately 5,000 people who have no such facilities as a shop, cinema, playground or anything of that kind? From now on at least this Parliament and those with responsibility for the planning and development of such areas must make it their business to ensure that such a situation will never be repeated. It is not right to expect the children of the poor and the deprived to keep out of trouble when the only pastimes they have are stealing cars and snatching handbags. I was taken aback sometime ago when, on speaking with some people and children in an area of this city, they admitted readily that it was as natural for them to steal cars for joyrides or to snatch handbags as it was for children in other areas to go to swimming pools or to play football or tennis. This is a very sad reflection on society. There is no point in placing the blame in any one place. Society as a whole have a lot to answer for in this regard. I am calling on the Minister to convince the Government that something must be done about the problem. If we take the necessary steps the role of the Garda in crime prevention and detection will be strengthened considerably. As of now there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the Garda. The commissioner in his report for 1980 sounds that warning bell loud and clear. Apart from that the figure of 73,000 reported indictable crimes for 1980 as against about 24,000 in 1970 is proof that we are not winning the battle against the ordinary criminal.
I have talked about crime prevention. I know that the Garda will deal with the area of crime. They are to be complimented on their successes in this area and in particular on the major successes they have had in dealing with the more serious type of crime — armed robberies. To that extent the period from about May 1980 up to the middle of this year was good but I would urge the Minister to impress on the Garda the fact that they must be constantly on the alert against the armed criminal and that we must not again have the sort of situation that existed in the seventies regarding the number of bank robberies that took place in those years. In 1980 and early 1981 we made a major breakthrough in dealing with this type of crime particularly in the Dublin area where the majority of them took place. I am sure that the Minister is as alarmed as I am that in the past four or five months there seems to be an upsurge in this area of crime. The Garda can deal best with this situation by being ever-vigilant and alert.
I was very upset on reading the report of an interview given by the Minister for Justice in the magazine Horizon, the publication of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. I envied the Minister that fine interview. He could hardly have written better himself. I was never given the opportunity by any association to come across so well as was the case of the Minister in that instance. In the interview the Minister is reported as having made particular reference to the aerial wing which was part of the requirement of the Garda Commissioner. The Minister said that no proper evaluation had been conducted prior to the commitment having been entered into by the previous Government and he said that he had asked for this evaluation to take place for the purpose of ascertaining whether the case for an aerial wing had been made and whether it would be more appropriate to make helicopters available to the Garda through the Air Corps. He went on to say that consideration must be given to the enormous expense of building new hangars and to the provision of new maintenance facilities, pilot training and so on. The Minister said that his concern was to give to the Garda the most realistic and effective way of operating. There is nobody in the Department capable of evaluating the proposal of the commmssioner on the question of whether the Garda should have fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. In saying that I include the Minister. It is because we did not have any expertise available to us in this area that the commissioner together with some of his most senior men, senior officials of the Department, a representative from the Air Corps and myself visited police forces in other countries to discuss the matter with them.