: I wish to thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. With your permission, I would like to allow Deputy Tunney a few minutes to express his views also.
For the third time in the past year, the Finglas area is without a bus service after seven o'clock in the evening due to the activities of mindless vandals. Finglas is a very large, working class area and many people depend totally on public transport for getting to and from work and social venues. The withdrawal of services is, therefore, causing considerable hardship to many people, especially shift workers, the disabled and the elderly.
I spoke yesterday to a constituent who is visually impaired, and that person's activity is seriously restricted because of the lack of public transport. He is forced to use taxis at night for essential trips into town. He, understandably, is very annoyed and is demanding immediate, severe action against the vandals in the area.
The incident which led to the withdrawal of services on this occasion started with the burning of a car on Sunday night last. A bus arrived on the scene, had to mount the path to try to get past the burning car, got stuck and was then systematically wrecked by a gang of youths with stones and concrete blocks, terrorising the crew and injuring one of them in the process. The crew decided to withdraw services after 7 p.m. from areas outside Finglas village as they considered their job did not warrant a risk to their lives and limbs, nor to those of their passengers.
I have every sympathy with these bus workers. They are poorly paid, work under appalling conditions and have to take all kinds of abuse from the public for the poor standards of service over which they have no control. It is obviously outrageous that they should be subject to such physical attacks as occurred on Sunday night last. I cannot blame them for believing that the protection which they were promised when they last restored full services had failed them.
I am aware that the Garda in the area have done everything humanly possible within the resources at their disposal to provide adequate control in the area, and there has been an improvement in the position there over recent months. Having said that, it is obvious that the police resources are not adequate at present to cover an area as large as Finglas, which has a population in the neighbourhood of 50,000 and which stretches 10 miles out to the border of Ashbourne. I emphasise also that only a tiny minority in the Finglas area, as in other areas of the city, engage in this type of attack. The vast majority of the people of Finglas, young and old, would be a credit to any city or town. They are concerned primarily about rearing their children and providing a proper environment for themselves and their families. They deplore what has happened, not only because of the withdrawal of bus services but because of the damage it does to their own area and their efforts to raise their families in peace and dignity.
A major contributing factor to the problem in the area is the misuse of alcohol and in particular the ease with which young people can get their hands on cider, which appears to be freely available in off-licences on the borders of the area. These off-licences are selling it either directly or indirectly to under-age youths. It is clear that the licensing laws must be changed to prevent this kind of abuse, and I ask the Minister to indicate in his reply what plans he has to deal with that aspect of the problem.
Society in general and this House in particular must share some of the blame for the juvenile crime and vandalism. Many of those involved in this sort of activity come from homes which have severe social problems, and it would be pointless, as some people have done, to demand that the parents in this situation should be held responsible under the law. Obviously, parents have responsibility, but to hold them responsible under the law when such a course would not prevent the kids from going out on the streets again the next night or the night after, and to take them out of the home and lock them up simply would aggravate the problem even further.
Again, it is the responsibility of this House. The Government have today put through a Social Welfare Bill which will aggravate the problem faced by these disadvantaged families. The education cuts which this Government have introduced which reduce the number of remedial teachers and guidance councillors will hit particularly hard at the working class areas such as Finglas. It is also hitting at these disadvantaged families and will bring more and more vandals on to our streets in the long run. The present Government and previous Governments have continually paid lip service to disadvantaged children, and while we have a very fine report of the task force on child care it seems to be gathering dust on some Department shelf.
To conclude, I would make the point that the problem is not simply a matter of rounding up kids and trying to ensure that they are not on the streets and locking them up. It is much deeper than that.
