Concrete action needed to tackle gang crime
Issued : Wednesday 3 February, 2010
Speaking on the Private Members Motion on Gangland Crime
What we have seen in 2010 is the continuation of gangland murders as criminals fight over the incredibly lucrative drug market and other black market economies. These gangsters are willing to kill and die for control of these profits. While I fully support the work the Gardai are doing to combat gangland crime and drug dealing, it seems that as soon as they convict a major figure, others mushroom up to take their place. We are living in an environment where certain sectors of society have lost all regard for people's lives - never mind their property or their right to security and a peaceful existence.
What the citizens of this state demand from the Government is not a self serving, self congratulating counter motion but some concrete and realistic actions.
It is accepted that drug use spans all socio economic classes and ethnicities, yet it seems that those who end up in the coroner's office or in Mountjoy almost invariably come from economically deprived areas. Why is this? Without trying to oversimplify the issue, it is because people from these areas have fewer opportunities in society. Why does society always respect someone who is very successful, who "pulled themselves up by the bootstraps"? It is because they have triumphed over adversity that the majority of society does not have to endure.
When the rest of the country was living through the rich economic times, there were parts of this city in particular where the largesse that was available to many, simply did not connect with them. My constituency of Dublin South Central contains some of the most socio economically disadvantaged areas in the country. It also houses the largest addiction centre in Ireland which provides a service for addicts and recovering addicts from across the country. It is in these areas that the reductions in social welfare benefits will hit hard. It is these areas which will suffer most if the Government succeeds in their agenda of driving down the minimum wage. It is these areas which continue to wait in vain for regeneration of run down social housing schemes, who are crying out for services and facilities that are taken for granted in other communities, while the state pays developers debts on buildings in Chicago, London and Bulgaria.
I am sure that everyone in this house is aware of the TV show "The Wire" and its stark presentation of the war on drugs and the intergenerational nature of drug dealing and drug addiction. I have spoken to teachers who tell me that they can make a pretty accurate prediction as to which of the children they teach in senior infants will end up in trouble with the Gardai. Ingrained deprivation and a lack of economic opportunities result in this poverty becoming intergenerational and thus creating an environment where criminality can flourish.
I fully support the opposition party motion tonight and would urge the Government to support it. But simply getting tough on criminals will not solve the underlying problems.
We should be frontloading our educational supports to the youngest and most vulnerable children.
We should ensure that children who are at risk are offered the same opportunities that the rest of the country takes for granted.
We must offer a different economic narrative for these areas, so that criminality is not looked upon as a glamorous career choice or indeed the only choice.
We must provide regeneration to communities who have been neglected for decades, to prove to them that the state considers them equal members of society, who cannot be allowed to continue to live in deplorable conditions.
We must address the deficiencies in the Garda Siochana structures as identified by the Inspectorate - such as the lack of IT equipment in stations, the fact that civilianisation of the Gardai has not been achieved as proposed, and that staffing levels have not been adapted to take account of the peak and troughs with regard to Garda levels.
We must end the easy availability of mobile phones in our jails which allow crime lords to continue to run their operations from behind bars and the fact that more people seem to come out of jail drug addicts than those that go in.
The sophisticated technology of gangland crime is now a serious challenge. The brutality of the gangsters is also a major threat to civilised society. The Gardai must be given the resources to match the ingenuity and the high tech facilities of the gangs. The culture of the mindless gangsters must also be tackled through early intervention and family support.
Unless we take a wider, more holistic view in tackling the issue of gangland crime and criminality, I fear that this house will be discussing this issue in the years to come as one generation of criminals is replaced by another and the cycle continues.
