Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very apt that we are having a discussion in the Dáil on this issue because there has been an air of unreality about the proceedings of the Dáil for some time. We have not been discussing key issues that are taking place in society but the fact that seven people have been gunned down in the capital surely merits a little bit more intervention by the Government, preoccupied as it may be with other things. To give an example, the shooting in the Regency Hotel was not only traumatic for the staff but for the homeless families from my constituency who are living there, whose children had to witness that and who are still living there after 11 months with nothing done to assist them.

There was an obsession by the media in autumn 2015 and early 2016 about rural crime but all crime is important. The reason there was an obsession is because a number of politicians, some of whom are now Deputies, jumped on a bandwagon and organised major public meetings in Waterford, Tipperary and Meath on this issue of rural crime. I have not seen the same interest by those parties in organising public meetings in areas of disadvantage blighted by the events that have been going on in recent months. The reason is that it is very easy for right wing politicians to hold meetings on things like rural crime and to give out about jeeps coming down from Dublin than it is for them to go into areas of massive disadvantage that they have gutted with cuts for the past seven years. I will give the Minister an idea of some of those cuts. From 2009 to 2013, health was cut by 22%, children and youth affairs by 29%, social protection by 29%, education by 78% and environment by 100%. How could one not expect that there would be a worsening or a fertilisation of the conditions that give rise to crime in such communities? At the same time that it was happening, 30 private schools got €115 million from the taxpayer for privileged kids who obviously become lawyers and judges overseeing the criminals in society. They got a huge subvention from the State despite not needing it. It would be interesting to see how many of them are the children of Deputies. At the same time huge cuts were being wielded in DEIS schools and areas of disadvantage. The pupil-teacher ratio rose and there were cuts in guidance counselling, which is an absolutely vital service for young people.

On the issue of drug addiction, let us be really clear, it is a problem across all social classes, as we have seen with the deaths of celebrities and wealthy people who have had drug problems but there is no question that drug addiction is a blight on working class communities in a much more concentrated fashion. It has its roots in poverty and deprivation, where drugs are an escape, have a certain glamour and are a way of earning income and status in some communities when there are no other alternatives to do so. The blame for allowing that situation to develop lies at the door of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, unfortunately, Labour, which participated in the cuts that were made. If one thinks about the cuts that were wielded on lone parent families, the issues that it will have in society down the line are tremendous. It will increase poverty and pressure on families. The drug treatment programmes have been cut since 2008 by 36.9%, so people who have fallen into addiction and want to get out of it are not being given any access to do so.

There have been cuts to the Garda under austerity and one of the down sides of the embargo on recruitment was that community police who had links in communities and housing estates in my constituency were shifted away to fill gaps for people who were on maternity or sick leave etc. That is a fact. The type of crime this affected most was crime dealt with through the connection between people and community police. Throwing loads of gardaí into working class communities will not solve the problem of crime. In fact, it could make it worse. The ring of steel that the Minister set up did not save the lives of people recently. Two of the men were killed in their own homes.

In recent times, people have seen a massive contradiction whereby there seems to be huge Garda resources for things like water protests, yet there were no resources to help a woman when a barring order was being contravened. It demonstrated that the gardaí are there at the end of the day to defend the establishment and the interests of capital and corporate interests. In that particular case, it was a classic example of defending the interests of Irish Water and the businesses that rely on it. Will the Minister please now call off her wasteful campaign of political policing and the targeting of communities like Jobstown, which has suffered enough through crime and drug abuse, now that the water charges have been set aside as an issue? There were whole incident rooms in Tallaght following up one event.

Capitalism breeds crime, drug abuse and antisocial behaviour. When there is a pyramid society where all the wealth is at the top in the hands of a tiny elite, gross inequality does not just take place, it is justified and promoted - individualism at all costs, where white collar crime goes completely unpunished, as we have seen in this country where the bankers and speculators were not jailed but were bailed and where supports are taken from special needs children in order to salvage and bail out the system itself.

We have to create a completely new society. Huge wealth exists, as demonstrated by Oxfam, the Panama papers and the wealth reports that are coming out, the most recent showing that 250 people alone have one third of the country's GDP. Unless we change this and get rid of the profit system, we will not get rid of crime and inequality.

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