Deputy Bertie Ahern has been given permission to raise on the Adjournment the large number of robberies in banks, post offices, supermarkets and business premises in the Drumcondra-Phibsborough area during the past five days.
Adjournment Debate. - Dublin Robberies.
I thank you for your cooperation in allowing me to raise this matter. I congratulate the Minister on his new appointment and wish him well in his extremely difficult portfolio. It will probably be more difficult than his previous job.
I have not raised the matter of crime for some time. I am a member of the Committee on Crime, Lawlessness and Vandalism and if one raises the matter too often one's colleagues begin to think that there are no other parts of the city or country which have crime. Unfortunately the area which I have the honour to represent is one of the main trading areas of the city and attracts a large amount of crime. Statistics prove that it is an area hit very badly by crime. I do not wish to claim, however, that the area I represent is any better or worse than other areas on the north or south side of the city. Crime in the city has not been highlighted in recent times but the position is extremely bad. There are regular robberies, muggings and house breakings and arms are being used with greater frequency.
I have great admiration for the gardaí who man the stations in Pearse Street, Store Street, Whitehall, Mountjoy Street, Fitzgibbon Street and the Bridewell. The personnel in these stations have to deal with a vast amount of crime. I cannot say that the position has become worse but last weekend was a particularly bad period in my constituency. My office is based at Tolka Bridge in Drumcondra. On Friday there was a convergence of about 100 gardaí, including members of the Task Force and Special Branch and men drawn from surrounding stations. They were literally running in circles trying to combat three crimes which took place within a very short time. A total of £15,000 was taken from a security van at Quinnsworth in Drumcondra. Shots were fired outside the bank in Lower Drumcondra Road and there was a raid on the post office in the same area. At the same time the resources of the Garda had to be diverted to deal with a very large robbery in Tallaght. Shortly afterwards there was a raid on the Northern Bank in Finglas. During a raid in Santry a gun was held to the head of a three year old retarded child. There was also the rape of a 30 year old woman in Clontarf when she returned to find thugs in her house. All these crimes occurred within a short space of time.
A huge number of burglaries are being carried out, to say nothing of car thefts. Mugging has now become so common that it is considered a petty crime hardly worth reporting to the Garda. Handbag snatching is not reported and if stolen cars are recovered by the owners the theft is not likely to be reported. Even minor burglaries are not reported. One reason for this is that many people living in my constituency are unable to get insurance from any company. People living in flats, which cover one-third of my area, do not even try to get insurance because they know it is impossible.
I do not attempt to accuse or blame the Minister. He is new in his job and it is a most difficult one. I know he will agree that the level of crime I have outlined is completely unacceptable. The Garda must be commended for doing their best, both on duty and off duty. Unlike other people in this House, I do not ever criticise them because I see them working extremely hard to combat crime. There is a danger that the current level of crime will become acceptable and for that reason I raise the matter from time to time. It would be a sad reflection on our society if we become complacent about the number of armed raids and people wearing balaclavas parading around the city, jumping off motor bikes to rob shops. The more organised gangs operate on Fridays and it would be appropriate today for the Minister to say a few words on this subject and reiterate the resolve of his Department and of the Garda to stop these crimes.
In my own area I have several times called on people to co-operate fully with the Garda and give any useful information. There are certain difficulties involved because the people who make up these gangs are well known by name to me, to the Minister and to the Garda. It takes evidence, however, to put them where they ought to be and it is difficult for people to give that evidence because of the obvious dangers. In recent times there has been a greater understanding on the part of the public of the slippery slope which is leading to an escalation of crime.
There has definitely been a change in the type of crime being committed. The criminal gangs in the city have become more competent. They have perfected their techniques. The banks in my area all have a pre-printed sign "Closed for an Hour because of Bank Raid". They do not have to wait too long for another raid. I gather a raid was carried out only a short time ago in Marino Mart, very near my home. I believe many of these crimes are carried out by the same gang. Local knowledge would indicate that this is the case and in my constituency local knowledge is invariably correct. Anyone in the Department or the Garda would confirm that.
Armed crime has become far more common in recent years and the determination of the criminals to fire has become very evident in recent months. The public cannot become involved in efforts to prevent these crimes because shots will certainly be fired. Luckily there have been no deaths. Vicious gangs are working within the city and no doubt they are planning their deeds for tomorrow and Saturday. We had this kind of thing a few years ago but it tended to be a different type of crime. The business community, who are very hard pressed because of the financial recession and the difficulties of getting insurance, now face an added burden. A number of journalists have highlighted the problems.
During the past month there has been a massive increase in crime in Dublin city and suburbs. There have been about 20 armed raids carried out on Fridays and Saturdays—11 in my area and the rest in other areas. Shots were fired on a few occasions but gardaí were on the scene very quickly. They are well organised and timed to perfection, often with information which is hard for anyone to defeat.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me this opportunity to raise the matter and to ask the Minister to do something about it. I know that the Garda are very professional and they know these gangs better than anyone else. They know the areas which they hit, the banks, bars, supermarkets and places where there is ready cash. They are not interested in money orders. In Dublin city areas such as Drumcondra, Glasnevin, Iona and Phibsborough which are full of business premises, resources should be made available in order to bring the Task Force into that area. They have to come from Dublin Castle and time is lost in doing so. They can get there at amazing speed but five or six minutes makes all the difference. It is not very hard to locate the unmarked cars, as they all are nowadays, in strategic areas.
Last year there was a big robbery on the south side of Dublin and the Task Force were there before the criminals and successfully apprehended them, I will not say they were charged because it is sub judice. The case is coming up soon. When three or four major robberies occur in a certain area it is unlikely that different gangs are involved. They are usually well timed in order to cause chaos. In cases such as this the Garda need additional resources in order to combat this new type of activity of hitting several places in the one area. Arms are used in all cases. This is causing great fear for shopkeepers, their staff and the ordinary people. There have been very savage attacks on people. The rape of a 30 year old woman in Clontarf and the holding of a loaded gun to the head of a three year old retarded child are only two of about 20 cases which I have heard of in the past week. That is a different type of criminal but it shows the extent of the viciousness of crime in our city.
The Minister has an onerous and difficult responsibility. Because this happens on a large scale and because we get used to vicious crime it does not make it acceptable. It has been proved in the past that where there is a concentration of gardaí and the Task Force, criminals are, if not driven out, at least driven underground. I know a lot about city crime and I have spoken this week to people in the Garda Síochána who have far more knowledge of it. They are extremely concerned about the increase in crime levels. I ask the Minister to take whatever measures are necessary to clamp down on this vicious and violent escalation in armed robberies in the city.
I am concerned at what can only be described as a spate of robberies on business premises over the past week in the north central area of the city. Deputy Ahern referred to a number of specific cases. I agree with him that every occurrence of a crime of this nature is a very serious matter, in many cases with very traumatic results for the victims. It is deplorable that a series of such crimes should have been perpetrated in that area over such a short period of time. I share the concern expressed by Deputy Ahern which I know is reflected in the thinking of many other Members of the House.
I assure the House that the Garda Síochána can be relied upon to do all that can be reasonably expected of them when faced with this situation in order to prevent further crimes of this nature. They will take every action that is open to them to apprehend and to bring to justice the people who are involved in this type of crime. The Garda authorities assure me that a number of specific measures are being taken, that deployment of Garda personnel and other resources at the Garda stations serving the area are being reviewed and that crime prevention patrols are being stepped up. The local Garda effort is being supplemented by assistance from the serious crime squad of the Garda Síochána. I hope that the intensive investigations now under way, will produce results in the near future.
On Tuesday last the gardaí were involved in a car chase after a sum of money was snatched at bank in Marino. Four men were subsequently arrested and the gardaí took possession of a sum of money. The persons arrested have appeared in court and have been remanded to a further hearing. I will not go into any more detail since the matter is sub judice. The gardaí are carrying out their job with concrete success in some cases.
That is very commendable. It is the same bank which was robbed this evening.
I do not intend to comment on the local knowledge referred to by Deputy Ahern. The Garda authorities are keeping the situation in that area under special review with a view to seeing whether any further special measures are warranted. The Garda have no evidence to suggest that this is the beginning of a major upsurge in crime in the area. I am very concerned, as indeed we all must be, at the trend towards the increasingly frequent use of arms in crimes of this kind. I want to make it clear that the penalties for crimes involving firearms will be rigidly applied. I cannot see why any of the leniency that our system allows for at various levels should be applied to cases of armed crime.
In the not too distant past we introduced stiffer penalties for the illegal possession of firearms. I intend to ensure that these penalties are fully applied in order to make the point that, not alone in Dublin city but in any other area, we cannot tolerate the increasing resort to the use of firearms by people involved in crime. There is some comfort to be gained from recent crime statistics assembled by the Garda authorities. For the moment the figures for 1985 are provisional but a definite downward trend in the level of reported crime can be identified. The 1985 figure indicates a reduction of 8.6 per cent below the level of 1984 which had shown a similar reduction of about 2½ per cent compared with the previous year. Provisional figures for the first two months of this year indicate that, throughout the country as a whole, there has been a slight decrease in the number of armed robberies and aggravated burglaries compared with the same period last year. This is not a reason for complacency. The House would agree that there is no such thing as an acceptable level of crime or an acceptable proportion of crime in the categories Deputy Ahern mentioned here.
The gardaí will have my full support and the full support of the House in measures they take to deal with the situation. I know the gardaí will give the community generally their full support both in the prevention and detection of crime of this kind. I thank Deputy Ahern for having raised this in the way he did. Local information is always of particular use in dealing with this kind of crime. We are fortunate in that over the years our Garda force have been very successful in tuning in to local information. I appreciate the fact, as Deputy Ahern mentioned, that there are people who from time to time feel a certain reticence about sharing information that they have with the Garda authorities.
I assure Deputy Ahern and anybody else concerned about this that, if for any reason people who have local information that could be useful to the Garda have an inhibition about giving it to the Garda, then as Deputy Ahern knows, there are means of getting to the Garda through other channels. Deputy Ahern and other Members of the House will find me particularly co-operative in that regard and the Garda will be very anxious to get any information they can. I emphasise as a general principle, and not because of the situation Deputy Ahern raised, the very serious obligation on anybody in the community who has information that can assist the Garda in protecting the public, to make that information available through whatever channels are open to them.
The Dáil adjourned at 5.25 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 11 March 1986.