It is traditional for a Deputy on an occasion like this to thank the Chair for giving permission to raise a matter on the Adjournment. I give that thanks with a little more than the traditional gratitude on behalf of all my constitutents, and I venture to say the vast majority of the people of Dublin and Ireland, that attention should be given to the emergency that exists and to the total failure of the normal constitutional process with regard to the penalties a person who is guilty of an offence should serve.
Two months ago in this House I raised a question on what was euphemistically called joyriding but what I called death on the road. In that contribution I referred to the death and the maiming of people and I spoke of the general deprivation of freedom for all our citizens but I was disappointed that the Minister of State acknowledged I had made a case against the hooliganism that prevailed. From what I know as a civil servant and as a Minister of State, that is part of the customary bureaucratic cover-up jargon when one has no case to make against charges. To refer to what is happening in this context as hooliganism is the greatest understatement I have heard.
We know that what we refer to in this city as law and order does not exist. As the makers of the law, we are taking a secondary place to a small group of thugs who are deciding what will be the law. The sooner we accept that emergency exists the better. The Government and the Minister for Justice must accept that there is a sincerity on this side of the House with regard to the emergency and what must be done. The Minister may reply that we had a Criminal Justice Bill in this House and that people expressed reservations about certain matters in it. I, for one, did not express such reservations. I said I would not give to a person who was obviously guilty of an offence the right to silence.
In my constitutency yesterday a person out on bail knocked down a little girl. Fortunately she was not killed. What do Mr. and Mrs Beirne, the parents of Fiona who was injured in that accident, and all the neighbours who know and can identify the people responsible, think of the situation that exists when those thugs can have available to them free legal aid so that they can attempt to prove it was not they but somebody else who committed the offence? Out of taxpayers' money and by the laws we have introduced, those people will be granted free legal aid. I think free legal aid has become quite a racket. It is a form of subsidy for the legal profession. I might allow it once but I would not grant it twice to anybody charged with an offence.
I realise there is a constitutional provision for the protection of the individual, that my wife, my mother, my brothers and sisters should be able to go about their business, to walk the streets or to stay at home and feel free from attack. That is the essence of freedom. To me the preservation of their freedom is far more important than any doubt there might be about the preservation of the freedom of somebody guilty of up to 50 offences. The laws that were appropriate 50 or 100 years ago to guarantee that the freedom of such a person would not be lost have become an absolute nonsense nowadays when it is obvious that it is the freedom of the law-abiding person that is at risk and is being denied to him.
We have a system that provides for a courts procedure, where people sit in judgment and decide on the evidence as to whether an appropriate sentence should be served. Let us take the case of somebody who goes before a court and who, in the opinion of the learned people there, is sentenced to serve six months. However, in many cases that person will not serve one day. We have a new legal system by telephone whereby the Governor of Montjoy speaks with a civil servant in the Department of Justice who asks him the position in the prison. The Governor may say: "Things are tough here. We have 540 prisoners but really we have accommodation for only 360 or 380". The civil servant will say that he is sorry but there are 20 more coming and that the Governor had better get rid of 20 prisoners. This is not an over statement of what is happening.
In the case of extenuating circumstances where a Deputy might make representations to the Minister, he will look cautiously at the matter and tell the Deputy that he cannot do anything that would make little of the courts. The Minister will be reluctant enough to do anything in the matter, as a Deputy would be about asking for anything. However, now we have a civil servant and the Governor of Mountjoy deciding for how long people will serve their sentences. We are here making laws and talking about the Criminal Justice Bill but that is the nonsense that exists and the sooner we face up to what is happening the better it will be.
There is no doubt that the people in Finglas and in other areas are at a point where they think we have let them down, that we are not capable of handling the emergency. When this Minister took office I felt a certain optimism. I expected we would have a Minister who would be tough and who would deal with the situation. However, I am afraid that for whatever reason that toughness and awareness of what is necessary seems to be disappearing. I am presenting the facts to him as I know them. A garda having chased a criminal for months and having brought him to court where he gets a sentence of six months can meet that criminal on the following day without him having served one single day. All he will get from that criminal is the "Harvey Smith" sign. One can imagine what that does to the self-respect of any garda. That is not Disneyland fantasy, it is fact.
I know that it is the custom for all Ministers and indeed for Ministers of State to try to put a veneer of propriety on what exists but this situation cannot be covered up with words any more. The prison officers are very disenchanted at the moment with what is happening. They know they are fighting a losing battle. The Garda Síochána are giving up the chase. The Minister may say it is all right for me or for anybody on this side of the House to talk like this. If the Minister were to reopen Daingean tomorrow he would have my encouragement and support. As far as I am concerned there is suitable and ample accommodation there. It is a fine big building. I had occasion to go down there when I was in the Department of Education. I looked at it. I know that there are at present there certain artefacts belonging to the Museum. As far as I am concerned it is far too good for the fellows I would like to send there. We must move away, pro tem at least, from this whole notion of rehabilitation. The language most of these people understand is that of your being as tough as they are. The softer you are with them the more they will chase you, the more they will blackmail and attack you, I have given a certain amount of study to what is called penology, the human behaviour and misbehaviour. There is absolutely no evidence to show that creating holiday conditions in any institution for those who have been guilty of serious crime pays; it does not pay. They think that is their right. That is why they are now using Mountjoy as a welcome port of call, they drop in, have a nice meal there, then they are released and go about their unsavoury business the following day.
I would have no hesitation in recommending that the Minister re-establish a special task force. I am very ill at ease in recommending that that task force should also be armed. What in the name of all that is good and holy is the point of sending two unfortunate gardaí out to a road stop to try to prevent passing somebody moving on them in a BMW, armed with a biro and a flash lamp? It is ridiculous; it is merely wasting the time of the Garda. The type of people about whom we are speaking here will not stop. On the other hand, the cowardly types they are, if they felt that the Garda were able to match them, they would stop. The Minister announced some time ago amidst some considerable publicity — and I was personally very happy about it — that he was now making spiked chains available to the Garda. I am asking the Minister now have they been used, have spiked chains been made available. What was the purpose of making the announcement? I have not read anywhere of their being used. The Minister of State told me here on the last occasion that special task forces were being set up here in the city and the Minister said recently that the Garda were on top of this. I can tell the Minister that they are not — the hare is now chasing the hounds. The convicts are on top of them and will continue to be until such time as it goes out from this House that it is proposed to take emergency measures.
The Minister might ask to me in replying: do I speak for everybody on this side of the House? Casting one's mind back to the Criminal Justice Bill there might be one or two people who would disagree, people who represent this great luxurious area of courts and lawyers, people who are well paid to tell young criminals to tell lies. They know they have been guilty of injury, of perhaps killing a person and there is somebody employed——
