On Thursday last I spoke about the drug problem in Ireland and particularly in Dublin. It has got out of hand. In the few minutes at my disposal then, I echoed Deputy Briscoe's demand that capital punishment be re-introduced for drug pushers, particularly heroin pushers. I will take up that matter later.
First of all, I want to express my concern and horror at the absence of law and order throughout the State. There is no doubt in the minds of ordinary people that the absence of law and order is the biggest problem confronting the country, on a par with the economy and unemployment. The unemployment problem is one that no Government can attack successfully; that of law and order should be and must be solved. Indeed, it is the responsibility of successive Governments to provide a state of law and order for the people, and its absence is a direct indictment of previous Governments who have failed to provide protection for the people. Every county in Ireland, perhaps with the exception of deeply rural ones, has watched the inexorable increase in crime in the last 15 years and now the problem has got out of hand in most of the country. We are fighting only a rearguard action against it.
Therefore, the Government must declare war on criminals. I am afraid we have gone soft, and the blame can be laid on politicians and the Judiciary. For many years Ireland was a relatively peaceful backwater from the point of view of crime. Now it has been turned into a haven for criminals. In Dublin crime is the biggest, indeed the only growth business, and throughout the country it has got out of control.
One hears alarming stories of prostitution, vice and protection rackets in Grafton Street, O'Connell Street and throughout the whole of the centre city. Can we as a nation accept that? The only way in which we can curb that, stamp it out, is by declaring war on criminals, whether subversives or common or garden criminals. War must be declared on them. Terror tactics must be adopted in the shape of appropriate sentences and other tough measures. Last week while canvassing in Dublin I witnessed the appalling spectacle when I called at doors of people cowering behind them in fear. This is totally unacceptable. I heard stories of elderly ladies locking themselves in from 3 p.m. on winter days.
This is a total indictment of successive Governments. There is lack of effective measures and this has been so in recent years. We must re-introduce the deterrents which have been dropped. It is that dropping of them that has brought us to this terrible pitch. Some Deputies have said this is because of the absence of discipline in homes. That is true to a certain extent but it applies not only to homes but in schools and the courts.
Deputies suggested that parents should be made answerable for the crimes of their children. I am not so sure that is a good suggestion because in very many cases parents are helpless when it comes to enforcing discipline. I believe it is in the schools discipline is required. Several years ago corporal punishment was abolished in the schools with the result that some of the schools can now be described as blackboard jungles. As a result the children from these schools as they progress through life turn to vandalism and crime. The situation is a very serious one. The amount of money being lost to the Exchequer as a result of crime, be it ordinary crime or subversive crime, is quite horrifying. These millions of pounds could be used to provide employment for the thousands of children leaving school every year. We just cannot afford crime. The only way we can tackle the problem is by getting to grips with it. To get to grips with it we need strong government. The people demand that. They do not expect economic miracles or to see the unemployment situation dramatically altered. The great majority are law-abiding people and they demand and expect a reasonable level of law and order.
I am sorry to say I believe we are fighting a losing battle. I believe the battle might well be considered very extreme and right wing but I make no apology for that because I believe it is the liberal influence permeating Irish society today which is largely responsible for the absence of law and order. Why should we live in such an unreal world? There are so many liberal influences in society today and so many civil rights organisations that they have obviously made their mark. While I commend many of these for their compassion they are in my opinion living in an unreal world. Crime exists and evil exists. These people have their own high principles and they refuse to believe others will engage in crime and so they think it is right to have this liberal approach. Why are they so liberal? Why take this contradictory attitude towards sentences? It passes my understanding. It also passes the understanding of the man-in-the-street. There should be mandatory sentences for crimes of violence. Some of the sentences imposed in our courts are inexplicable.
I would like now to contrast the situation in Northern Ireland with that in the Republic. I lived seven miles from the Border. I have worked in Northern Ireland for the last seven years and I would like now to take this opportunity to dispel the notion that life in Northern Ireland is horrific and one goes in terror of one's life when one crosses the Border. That is not the case. If one leaves out what is euphemistically called "political crime" the level of ordinary crime in the North is far lower than that in the South. Last year in Newry, a county town, in a catchment area of 45,000 people, 221 were charged with crimes ranging from simple drunkenness to burglary. In a comparable area in Dundalk, with a catchment area of 45,000 people, 559 were charged in Dundalk court. That is a horrific indictment of the level of criminal activity in the South and in my own area in particular. It should dispel the notion many have in the South that living in the North is highly dangerous.
With regard to jails, I said on an earlier occasion here that if we need jails in every county we should build them. I am sure we could find the money. If we could build a residence for the Irish Ambassador in Peking at a cost of £600,000 surely we could find the money to build jails. It is not good enough for the Minister to say there is a building programme into 1987. There is a demand for more jails today. If prisoners have to be housed two and three to a cell, so be it. They have transgressed against society. I am interested in the victims. I am not particularly interested in the criminals. I believe conditions in too many of our jails are too luxurious. Previous speakers have referred to some jails as hotels. I do not regard these conditions as necessary. The old fashioned concept was that, while prisoners were not abused, the going was tough and the result was that, at the end of their sentences, they came out with a firm resolve they would never go back again. There is no need for luxurious jails. We need more jails and we need not spend tremendous sums providing them.
With regard to police methods, I support the Garda Síochána. We have a police force of which we can be very proud. It bears comparison with any police force in Western Europe. However, since the force became mechanised I do not think it has been as effective. Night patrols seem to have disappeared. Some 20 or 25 years ago such patrols were a common feature of every town and the level of crime 20 or 25 years ago was very low. I believe it is the absence of these patrols that is responsible for the upsurge in criminal activity. No matter how sophisticated methods may become they can never replace the effectiveness or, indeed, the deterrent value of the policeman on the beat. I would call for more policemen on the beat at night. We need more foot patrols. They were effective in the past. The presence of such patrols gives people a sense of security.
I listened to lawyer Deputies speaking here last week. I listened particularly to one brilliant young man who was extremely eloquent but, in my opinion, spoke ambiguously. Lawyers seem to me to be preoccupied, despite their protestations to the contrary, with the rights of the accused. While that is desirable I believe they have gone too far and I hope they will not do too much nit-picking with this Bill. I approve of the Bill and I hope it will have an unopposed passage.
Some lawyer Deputies voiced disquiet over section 16. I agree with section 16 which decrees that a man charged with a criminal offence will have to indicate what his likely defence will be. It is reasonable and desirable that he should do so when he is brought into custody rather than have a lawyer concoct a cock-and-bull story for him. It is an acceptable part of the Bill. Naturally nobody wants to see the emergence of a police State, but the Irish people need and demand strong protection and they must get it from the Minister for Justice, the Government and the Judiciary. Sentences must be imposed which are appropriate to the crime instead of the widely differing sentences which some eminent judges have been imposing.
I congratulate the Minister on his initiative in introducing this Bill. It does not go far enough but it is a fair effort in his first year in office. I hope that each year he will introduce more beneficial measures so that when he leaves office the law and order situation will be such that people will be able to live in peace with a reasonable degree of comfort, free from the threat posed to them by criminal elements.
I wish to draw attention to another form of crime which is prevalent in Dundalk and the Border area. We suffer badly from the subversive activities of the IRA and the INLA factions who are extremely active at present in Dundalk. The van used in the recent Strabane bombing was stolen at gunpoint from a young man who had bought the van only one month previously. These mobsters, cowardly thugs with guns, called at his door while he was watching television and took the van, depriving him of his livelihood. More seriously, they later took the lives of three policemen in Strabane. Last year my own van was stolen by the Provisional IRA and was found two months later by the police, with new number plates and having been resprayed, in an area of County Louth close to Crossmaglen. That van was to be used to kill somebody or to rob some unfortunate person. Only last week, 100 yards from my home, an elderly lady and her family of five were held at gunpoint for two hours by thugs of the IRA. The family are in the electronics and telecommunications business and £30,000 worth of equipment was stolen from them, as well as their van and cars. The vehicles were later discovered in South Armagh but the equipment was gone and the insurers refused to pay because of the subversive activity involved. The family employ eight people and they will almost certainly go out of business because of the IRA activity in Dundalk. There are many instances of such activity, such as knee-cappings. We have a large unwelcome crowd of people from the North of Ireland who have fled over the Border seeking shelter here. In many cases these people should be rounded up and sent back to face charges in the North.
I have given an example of the kind of subversive crime that is peculiar to the Dundalk region and I am asking the Minister of State to convey to the Minister that we need more police protection in Dundalk. The town has been dubbed "El Paso" and we resent that title because it has injured us economically. We have had no investment since the outbreak of the troubles, yet ours is the biggest town in the country. There is no doubt that some of the criticism of Dundalk is justified. We suffer from cross-Border criminal activity and for many years I have been asking for more police protection. Dundalk has the highest rate of criminal activity outside Dublin and, possibly, Limerick. I hope we will get more police in the next few months in order to protect us against these thugs.
One area not covered in the Bill is that of murder. I have very strong views on murder. For many years it was considered the ultimate crime but the pendulum has swung and the crime of murder has been downgraded. It is no longer even a nine-day wonder and deterrents must be provided in order to protect people from thugs, mobsters and gangsters. The three most recent murders have involved women, a twenty-year-old girl in Ennis who received 42 stab wounds from some animal, a 64-year-old lady in Drogheda who was strangled for a £10 note while coming from a whist drive and a lady in Wexford. The weaker sex and society in general must be protected and I call for the re-introduction of hanging, not as a form of retribution but as a deterrent. I accept that hanging is not totally a deterrent but it is a partial deterrent. In my town I am considered to be a reasonably affable man. I would not kill a mouse.
