I move:
That Dáil Éireann requests the Government to provide the Garda Síochána with the resources needed to enable them to deal effectively with the present unacceptable levels of crime, lawlessness and vandalism.
At the outset I reject the amendment put forward in the name of the Minister for Justice suggesting that the Dáil approves of the provision by the Government for the Garda Síochána of resources in the current year. In the past few days, particularly, we have all seen the widespread alarm about the cutbacks in Garda overtime. There is a basis for this. Alarm, some of which may have been unnecessary, has been created by what is happening in the Garda Síochána. The news of the cutbacks was particularly alarming to people living in areas where there are high levels of crime.
The Minister gave us assurances in the House that despite circumstances at the Border or elsewhere, areas in which there were high levels of crime would be given the attention they need, that the Garda would not be cut for overtime, that they would be allowed the necessary flexibility. Therefore, our great concern when we read of these difficulties recently can be understood. We know very well that in recent years the volume of crime has increased dramatically, with nearly 100,000 crimes being recorded for 1984. No doubt the Minister will claim that there has been a drop in the figures in 1985 — the figures should be available by this time. A special feature of the past three years has been the rise in violent crime and injuries to law-abiding citizens.
We are not dealing with statistics, whether they are going up or down, but with the clear pattern of an increase in violent crimes and injuries to citizens. Various Coalition Ministers have tried to fudge the issue in an effort to avoid their responsibilities. They suggest that the crime problem is under control. This head-in-the-sand approach does not help at all, especially when it is juxtaposed with the low detection rate of one in three, the low rate of recovery of stolen property, about 8.6 per cent, the spiralling of violent crimes, especially in urban and suburban areas, the ready availability of unlicensed firearms, the growth in racketeering and the failure of the Government to give needed support to those who are involved in the front line of the fight against crime, the community, the victims, and above all the Garda, who at the end of the day are the thin blue line between the community and the criminals.
It is vital that this House provides the Garda with the resources to deal with the dreadful problem they have to face. Our newspapers highlight this failure daily when they report criminal cases. Whole communities are forced to throw a cloak around criminal activities in their areas not because they do not care but because they are caught helplessly between the complacency of the Government and what they see as the success of the criminals and the intimidation, by threats, of the racketeers.
The Garda can give only so much. At present they are being asked to fight the criminals with their hands tied behind their backs. I have been speaking to gardaí recently who are responsible for policing serious crime areas, and that is the way they feel about it. Their comment is that because of cutbacks in overtime and the lack of flexibility available to them they are facing criminals with their hands tied behind their backs.
The buck stops with the Minister for Justice, and as long as the Government continue their cutbacks and their failure to re-inforce the Garda the criminals will have a free rein. There has been a failure to beat the criminals and to reduce the crime rate significantly. Therefore, the community are forced into a position in which people are forced to accept that the activities of criminals are in some way normal. We cannot ask people to sacrifice their self respect, their peace and their right to security of life and property. There is no such thing as an acceptable level of crime and we will continue to oppose Coalition attempts to peddle the notion that there is.
The community are being savaged by criminals, vandals and thugs. Last year, the value of property stolen is estimated to have been more than £31 million, of which only £2.6 million, or 8.6 per cent, was recovered. People no longer feel safe in their homes. The elderly, in particular, are living in an unnecessary state of fear. I say "unnecessary" because very often the presence of a garda on the beat would take away a great deal of the fear they have and give them a sense of security.
I know of schools, pubs, shopping centres and post offices which have been burned and vandalised. Racketeering is on the increase, a point the Minister continually refuses to accept. What does the Minister know about the situation on the ground? He can see from the newspapers that during last weekend, in a locality close to me, a school was plundered, a pub was robbed and a garda is in hospital tonight because of trying to do his duty in a shopping centre. A church was set on fire, a school was robbed and a community centre was vandalised. That is what happens at a weekend in this city but it could be stopped if sufficient gardaí were made available. We asked the Minister about this before and we will go on shouting about it. It is not good enough to pull back resources from certain areas. The result is that some people are bearing the brunt of the storm of crime and vandalism. The Minister has refused to accept that this is happening.
I am not interested in the generality of statistics. The Minister can go and see the areas in question. Night after night, weekend after weekend, crime and vandalism are rampant. It could all be stopped. It is interesting to note that during the recent kidnapping affair crime was wiped out when all the detectives and gardaí were around. The Minister can check the statistics if he wishes. Because the gardaí and detectives were on the street checking to see what was going on, people had peace. It shows that if the resources are allocated to areas that have higher crime levels the problem can be solved. It is the duty of the Minister to do this.
I know of one public house that cannot be sold even at half its market value because of the involvement of racketeers and of another where insurance cover was withdrawn on change of ownership also because of racketeers. In that case the Garda Síochána were aware of the circumstances; but, given their limited resources, there was little they could do to ensure the rights of that pub owner. This kind of thing crops up again and again. The Garda may have an idea of what is going on, but they must put in resources to get results. That means flexibility of operation and overtime, and unless they are available they cannot carry out the kind of surveillance that is necessary in such circumstances. The pub owner to whom I referred, and I suspect an increasing number in that locality, are victims of a Government who are less than honest in confronting criminals.
Some insurance companies will say that no longer can they afford to insure pubs because of vandalism and arson in certain areas. The insurance of schools is also approaching a point of crisis. Some 95 per cent of school insurance is carried by one company and recovery rates for malicious damage to schools have risen from £250,000 in 1982 to over £409,000 in 1985. Of course, the actual cost is higher — that is just the amount an insurance company can recover in respect of malicious damage. Three quarters of the claims came from the Dublin area. Schools in that area are in a constant stage of siege and, with the Government's proposed withdrawal of malicious damages, it is anticipated there will be a premium increase of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent in school insurance later this year because of vandalism and because people are not being protected. The Garda are well able to do that if they are given the resources, but they are not being given the resources. This is the net result of Government policy, of penny pinching and cutbacks of Garda resources. It means that gardaí are taken off the beat, leaving the community exposed to criminal activity.
It is no wonder that the only growth industry in the country is in the area of home security which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the entire security industry. This is an industry that is feeding on fear, a fear that has been bred both by the success of the criminal and the failure of the Government to act. It causes all the more concern in that it is alleged that some of these security companies are little more than a front for protection rackets. The response of the Government has been to cut back on Garda resources. I know that this Minister has a deserved reputation for cutbacks, that he is trying to implement in the Department of Justice what he tried to do in the Department of Finance before the present Minister re-wrote his budget.