(Mayo): I thank the Ceann Comhairle for choosing this item for the Adjournment and I also thank the Minister of State for agreeing to reply to it out of sequence.
It has been a bad ten days for the system of law of order here. We have had a daring armed bank raid at Dublin Airport, the £100,000 taken is still missing and the criminal gang is still at large. In a high profile drugs case the jury took very little time to realise that they did not believe the Garda evidence and the case collapsed. The State has had to pay substantial damages for the wrongful arrest of a totally innocent Sligo man accused of stealing a wallet and the taxpayer, who has to pay the piper, has still not been told the cost of the tune. The Government was slammed for its failure to reply for more than 16 months, to queries from the Swedish authorities in a massive money laundering case. There was a second bank raid at the AIB in Finglas. On Thursday morning last, we learned of the tragic suicide of a 23 year old at Wheatfield Prison. On Friday, news bulletins inform us that the new women's prison opened by the Minister several weeks ago had still not accommodated a single prisoner. The same bulletins confirm that the £26 million Clover Hill Remand Prison, officially opened amid fanfare and photocalls by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on 1 June, has still not come into service five and a half months later because the electronic doors, the sprinkling system and the computer security system are not working, the fire alarms send off false alarms, the hazardous floor surface has still not been replaced and the electrical wiring is dangerous. On Saturday morning we woke up to be told that a business manager, who is five months pregnant, and her husband were kidnapped at 9.10 p.m. the previous evening by four armed and masked men at their home in Booterstown. They were held captive overnight. At 7.15 a.m. on Saturday morning the woman was taken by car to the Continental and American Express office at Nassau Street and ordered to open the safe. Meanwhile two of the gang members forced her husband to lie down in the back of his car while they drive around for 40 minutes. The woman was left at her office and told to stay there under threat that if she alerted anybody, her husband would be harmed. The raiders made good their escape with half a million pounds and like the Dublin Airport saga, the money and men are missing.
When I raised the Dublin Airport raid in the House this night week, the Minister was largely dismissive of his role and that of the Garda. He said it was essentially a matter for Aer Rianta and airport security. When I pointed out that the annual Garda report for 1998 revealed 61 armed raids that year, the Minister produced the 1994 figures to try to show that the position had improved. When I reminded him that the figures for the first six months of this year had hit a record 92 armed robberies, he assured us that everything was under control. Yet three days later we had a double kidnap and another successful bank robbery. I will not mention the shameful debacle at the refugee centre yesterday and today, but the incredible litany of blunders – administrative blunders and security breaches – over a ten day period reads like a ten day extract from the annals of some banana republic. Unfortunately, it is by no means an exception or an exaggeration.
There seems to be no problem in criminals securing guns. There is every evidence that redundant paramilitaries are on the move again. The Garda acknowledged they were tipped off – that a series of armed robberies have been planned. We are into a major cycle of armed raids on banks and institutions. We are also into a wave of gangland murders. Guns were used without hesitation in a series of drug related revenge killings.
Last week I called on the Minister to initiate a thorough security review, first by the Garda and second by the banks, who have a clear obligation to devise whatever measures are necessary to make their premises and multimillion pound operations more secure.
We are facing a major security crisis. Why has the Minister allowed the situation to get out of control? Why are robberies and raids being carried out with such ease and impunity? The performance of a Minister for justice is gauged by the manner in which he or she ensures that law, order and the security of the State and its citizens are preserved. The Minister is not only not measuring up to this yardstick, but seems oblivious to his failure to do so. In the circumstances, the Taoiseach should show zero tolerance for him and appoint somebody who can do the job effectively.
