Drug Debt Related Intimidation and Community Safety: Motion [Private Members]

I move: notes that: — drug dealers and organised criminal gangs are terrorising families, exploiting vulnerable young people and holding entire communities to ransom through intimidation, threats, extortion and violence; — the activities of these criminal gangs represent a direct assault on community safety, with residents, families and local businesses forced to live in fear in their own neighbourhoods; — drug-related intimidation extends far beyond those involved in drug use, with parents, grandparents, siblings and innocent family members frequently threatened and targeted over alleged drug debts; — criminal gangs deliberately exploit vulnerable children and young people, drawing them into drug dealing, debt, criminal activity and cycles of intimidation and violence; — recent deaths and serious incidents of drug-related violence have demonstrated the devastating consequences of allowing criminal gangs to establish a foothold in communities; — drug dealers must not be allowed to exercise control over streets, housing estates or neighbourhoods, and no community should be abandoned to organised criminality; and — recognises that while drug-related intimidation affects all communities, its impact is often most acute in areas already experiencing persistent poverty, social exclusion, educational disadvantage, unemployment and historic underinvestment, where organised criminal gangs can exploit existing vulnerabilities; further notes that: — any effective response must tackle these root causes alongside law enforcement measures, residents, community activists, youth workers and local organisations have repeatedly demonstrated leadership and courage in standing up to drug dealing and intimidation, often without adequate support or protection from the State; — the Garda Drug Related Intimidation Reporting Programme and community-based initiatives such as Drug Related Intimidation and Violence Engagement (DRIVE) provide important mechanisms for responding to intimidation, but require greater investment, coordination and public awareness; — tackling drug-related intimidation cannot be left to An Garda Síochána alone and requires a comprehensive, community-led response involving policing, addiction services, youth organisations, local authorities, schools and community representatives; — restoring community safety requires both an uncompromising response to the criminal gangs responsible and sustained investment in the communities and families they target; and — Local Community Safety Partnerships provide an important opportunity to put communities at the centre of tackling drug dealing, intimidation and violence, but must be backed by meaningful resources, clear responsibilities and measurable outcomes; condemns: — the criminal gangs and drug dealers who prey on vulnerable people, threaten families, recruit children into criminal activity and use violence to control communities; — the use of drug debts as a means of extortion and coercion, including threats against innocent family members; — the targeting of community workers, residents and others who challenge drug dealing and criminal behaviour; and — the failure to ensure that every community affected by persistent drug-related criminality has the policing, public services and community supports necessary to confront it; and calls on the Government to: — launch a major crackdown on drug gangs and intimidation, providing dedicated Garda resources to identify, investigate and prosecute those responsible for drug dealing, extortion, threats and violence, and to target the finances and assets of organised criminal gangs; — establish a comprehensive community-led response to drug-related intimidation, bringing together An Garda Síochána, local residents, community organisations, drug and alcohol task forces, local authorities, youth services and other statutory agencies to develop coordinated local action plans; — increase the number of Gardaí being trained annually so that there are sufficient members available to tackle drug related intimidation and keep communities safe; — place drug-related intimidation at the centre of Local Community Safety Partnerships, requiring targeted action plans in affected areas, with dedicated funding, meaningful community participation and clear accountability for delivery; — strengthen the Garda Drug Related Intimidation Reporting Programme, providing specialist resources, greater public awareness, confidential reporting pathways, timely Garda intervention and effective protection for victims and their families; — expand and fully resource the DRIVE programme, ensuring every community affected by drug-related intimidation has access to trained community workers, specialist family supports and coordinated Garda and community interventions; — introduce dedicated community safety investment programmes in areas experiencing persistent drug dealing and intimidation, including additional community Gardaí, improved public spaces, youth facilities, sporting amenities and community-based services; — provide immediate and practical protection for families targeted by drug gangs, including emergency accommodation, relocation where necessary, counselling, family support and access to appropriate legal assistance; — develop a national programme to prevent the recruitment and exploitation of children and young people by drug gangs, including early intervention, outreach youth work, education, mentoring and targeted support for those at risk; — provide sustainable, multiannual funding to frontline community organisations, recognising their central role in challenging drug-related intimidation, supporting families, building community resilience and creating safer neighbourhoods; — strengthen accountability across Government, requiring the Ministers responsible for Justice, Health, Housing, Children and Community Development to deliver a coordinated response, with annual reporting to the Oireachtas on Garda enforcement, victim protection, community investment and progress in reducing drug-related intimidation; and — commit to sustained, long-term investment in communities that have experienced persistent disadvantage, recognising that tackling drug-related intimidation requires not only effective policing but also action to reduce poverty, inequality and social exclusion and to expand access to education, employment, healthcare, housing, sport, recreation and community development opportunities. Tá daoine feargach. Tá daoine scanraithe. Caithfidh na gardaí dul i ngleic go dian leis na dronganna drugaí. Drug debt intimidation is destroying lives. It is leaving individuals and families living in fear. People are angry and frightened and, in too many communities, people feel abandoned. The horrific murders in Waterford of Philip and Kim English and their sons Callum and Jayden shocked us all. I want to express my deepest condolences to the English family and send our best wishes to the two children who remain in hospital. What happened to the family was horrific. It is our duty as elected representatives to not only say such a thing must never happen again but to work to that end. Many colleagues who will speak tonight have been supporting those dealing with drug debt intimidation for years. What they will tell us is what our communities have been telling us: the situation is getting worse, with increased fear, despair and violence, families forced to leave their homes in the dead of night, people who pay alleged drug debts for family members and tell no one and people who feel they can barely breathe because drug gangs are taking control of their communities and, in some cases, their lives. We are talking about homes being attacked, petrol bombed, vandalised; cars being burnt out; people being violently assaulted. We are talking about lives destroyed and, in some tragic cases, lives lost. Communities are asking when enough is enough. Many victims feel they have no choice but to pay. The majority of instances go unreported because people are terrified to go to An Garda. There needs to be a public awareness campaign so people know where to turn if this happens to them. The supports need to be there for them when they do so. Support alone is not enough. There must a be a two-track approach: a long-term investment and focus on prevention that includes significant investment in tackling deprivation, poverty and inequality, combined with an immediate and determined crackdown on the criminal gangs responsible for this intimidation. There needs to be a particular focus on stopping young people being groomed by drug gangs into a life of criminality. Right now, affected communities need high-visibility policing on their streets. That involves significant increases in community gardaí. There needs to be a concerted, sustained and resourced Garda operation cracking down on those involved in drug debt intimidation. Those engaged in this criminality have to be identified, arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. We need to get these people off our streets and out of our communities. The Criminal Assets Bureau should establish a dedicated operation to identify and target those responsible for drug debt intimidation, seizing the assets of gangs and individuals who terrorise and communities. While drug debt intimidation can affect anyone, we know working-class communities have been disproportionately impacted. That is why investment in these communities is so important. Communities need properly funded outreach workers, youth services, addiction supports and diversion programmes. They need practical supports, including investment in community safety measures such as CCTV. Communities deserve to feel safe and families deserve to live free from fear. Those who think that they can hold entire communities to ransom through intimidation and violence must know that the full resources of the State will be deployed against them. I implore and plead with all Members of the House to support this Sinn Féin motion, but more importantly, to work together to put its provisions into effect.

Trauma, sadness and heartbreak; that is what happened in Waterford over the last number of days, as I am sure the Minister is aware. A family has been utterly devastated. I attended the funeral yesterday, as did Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and Deputy Conor McGuinness. We saw four coffins lined up, including two white coffins for the children. Philip, Kim, Callum, and Jayden were murdered in their home and young Nadia and Elliot are still fighting for their lives. It was violent criminality and drug intimidation that caused this. People were looking for money from an innocent family, and their lives were taken. Drug intimidation has consequences. It destroys lives. It destroys communities, and we have seen the utter devastation that it has had in Waterford. There have been many attacks on many families over the course of the last number of years. Many of them go unreported. Some of them have been raised in this House. Those families live in fear, and those criminal gangs and thugs thrive on fear and silence. It is very difficult for people to come forward. I have genuinely spoken to hundreds of people in Waterford who said that the English family lived in fear. For any family to have to live in that fear is unimaginable, but they ask what to do in these circumstances, if the State is not there to protect them. This is because those gangs thrive on fear and silence. There can be no fear and silence in this House and from the State. The State has to stand up in a really forceful way, and say it is going to crack down on these criminal gangs; that there will be no hiding place for the people who carry out attacks, or for the people behind them and those who give the orders. I spoke to Philip's father, Paddy, and he said to me, "If you are talking to the Minister, tell him to change the law". If the law needs to be changed, that is what needs to be done. We have to do absolutely everything possible to protect those families and anybody who is a victim of drug intimidation. I never want to see anything like the scene I saw in Waterford. I never want to go into a community again and have to look people in the eye, and see that trauma and sadness, but also that anger that is there as well. The politicians from Waterford understand this. It was palpable. People are seething about what happened. There is that deep anger because what happened was so outrageous and wrong. Those four people should still be alive today. I am appealing to the Minister. Everything possible that can be done should be done to, first, bring these people to justice and that means the people who gave the orders. There can be no hiding place for them. I do not care where they are or in what country. Wherever they are, they have to be brought to justice. It is the same for any of these gangs who are perpetrating this type of violence in our communities. I again offer my condolences to the English family. I hope, and it has been said time and again in Waterford over the course of the last number of days, that this is a turning point. This has to be a point where the State says enough is enough; these criminal gangs will be brought to justice; that there will be that crackdown and families will not have to live in fear like the English family had to do.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to Jayden and Callum, to their mother, Kim, and to their father, Philip, and the sadness of their funerals will stay with me. It was, and it is, utterly heartbreaking. We offer the Companjen and English families our condolences again. As we stand here discussing this, there are two children still fighting for their lives in hospital. They and their family remain in our prayers. In conversations across Waterford one message kept coming through loud and clear: this cannot happen another family. This must be the turning point. As the cameras leave Waterford and the news cycle moves on, the political focus has to remain. Drug-related violence and intimidation affect families in every city, town, village and townland in the country. I personally know young men who have taken their own lives under the weight of that intimidation and those threats against them and their families, and that devastating consequence often goes unseen and unspoken. This really must be that moment of change. The first national report on drug-related intimidation recorded 1,017 cases across every county in the State, and we know that is the tip of the iceberg. Many more go unreported. We need to see a determined Garda crackdown, not just on those carrying out those crimes, as Deputy Cullinane said, but on those directing, orchestrating and profiteering from them. The people at the top must be faced down and brought to justice. The Government has to ensure that gardaí have the resources to dismantle these gangs, confiscate the proceeds of their crimes, protect threatened families, invest in community supports, actually resource drug and alcohol strategies, prevent young people from being exploited in this way and ensure social inclusion, youth and mental health services have the money to do their essential work. Our motion sets out practical measures, and the Government must give the issue the priority it now demands. If we are being honest, that priority has never been given. It has not happened to date. Today must be that turning point. It must be the watershed moment. Those impacted deserve more than words of sympathy. We have to turn their despair into a lasting action.

The tragedy that was inflicted on an innocent family in Waterford must not go unanswered. I also offer my sincerest condolences to everybody impacted by this attack. Drug debt intimidation, open drug dealing and gang-related violence have no place in our communities. The people who are doing this offer nothing to our communities. They suck the lifeblood out of them, and they have no place whatsoever in them. I listened to the Minister's statements during the week. He said that this should be a watershed moment. I agree, but when this was relayed to people in my community, there was a bit of anger there in relation to that. Our communities have been crying out for support and protection for years. I have been raising drug debt intimidation and gang-related crime in this Chamber since I was elected. I have been speaking about an ongoing feud in my area for a long time. The firebombing of homes is becoming a modus operandi for these thugs. Over a dozen homes were set ablaze during the feud in one estate alone in my constituency, leaving ordinary workers and people, decent residents, terrified. Why was this not a watershed moment? An 11-day-old baby had to be evacuated from a home because the house next door was targeted by these thugs and was firebombed. Why was this not a watershed moment? A teenager was attacked with a machete in broad daylight on the main road in Neilstown. Why was this not a watershed moment? Separate to the feud, we also had another incident where a woman opened her door and had flammable liquid thrown at her. She was set ablaze, leaving her with life-changing injuries and an area absolutely traumatised. Why was this not a watershed moment? My area is not unique. The Minister is going to hear similar stories about their own areas from my colleagues. Our communities are terrified and have collective trauma. At the time, I called for a local task force to deal with the issues, and I felt those pleas fell on deaf ears. We got help after a young man was murdered. I told the Dáil that if my community did not get the help that it needed, somebody was going to lose their life, and that happened. We called for help and got it from the gardaí after that. The gardaí have done a decent job, but there are not enough of them. There are less community gardaí in my area today than there was this time last year. However, we are not just going to police our way out of this situation. This motion calls for a trauma-led response and a co-ordinated response between the gardaí, stakeholders and community groups, but they have to be resourced. We have to resource our communities. We have to give our communities the ability to have resilience against these thugs. We must also send out the message today that these thugs have no place in our communities. They are not wanted in our communities, and the days when they can operate with impunity in our communities are numbered.

My thoughts this evening are with the English family and the wider community in Waterford; a community devastated by violent crime. Families and communities have had to face terror on their own and in silence for too long. I have spoken to the Minister directly about drug-related intimidation. I have sat with families who live in constant fear of violence. I have met and listened to communities that have been traumatised by regimes of terror. There is not a town or village in this State that is unaffected and our working-class communities - areas that are deprived of adequate public services - are, as always, disproportionately affected. In my constituency of Dublin Fingal East, I have supported many families suffering intimidation and violence. One young man who ran up a drug debt was assaulted and ended up in hospital, and his elderly parents were threatened. Their car was burned out and their home was vandalised. They could not borrow to pay off what started off as €15,000 debt and ended up becoming a €40,000 debt. I worked with the family and they engaged with DRIVE and the matter was successfully resolved but they still live in constant fear. A mother who sadly lost her daughter because of an overdose was approached during her child's funeral and told she was responsible for her daughter's debt. She cleared the drug debt but had to borrow to cover the costs of her daughter's funeral. There are young women being forced into sexploitation to clear their debts or those of loved ones. These are just some examples. We can no longer ignore or turn a blind eye to this scourge on families and communities. Government must prioritise tackling the violence just as it rightly prioritised tackling the drug crisis following Veronica Guerin's murder in 1996. This must be a similar movement that demands a similar all-of-government response. Tackling violence cannot be left to drug projects, the drug task force and youth services. These services are already underfunded and overstretched. Reducing it to a drugs issue only stigmatises and marginalises all the victims. It is deeper and more complex. It involves child grooming, sexual exploitation, taking over and occupying people's homes and forcing families to hold on to weapons and drugs. Women are particularly vulnerable, with mothers and grandmothers bearing the brunt of the violence and shouldering the cause of drug debts. Tackling intimidation and violence cannot be left to An Garda Síochána alone. It requires a comprehensive community-led response involving policing, addiction services, youth organisations, local authorities and education and community leaders. I am urging the Minister to support Sinn Fein's motion and to work cross-party to make our community safer. I met the Minister at recovery events in September. Many of those families are dealing with drug intimidation and debts. I invite people to support a vigil being organised by Family Addiction Recovery Network, FARI, to highlight the plight of families facing violence, which will be held outside the Dáil on Tuesday, 3 November at 1 p.m.

I want to begin by sending our thoughts and prayers to the English family - Philip, Kim, Callum and Jayden - and to Nadia and Elliott, who at this moment are fighting for the lives in hospital. It is absolutely heartbreaking stuff. However, this is not without warning as my colleagues have outlined. I have here some correspondence sent to Cork City Council in the past couple of months about families who have been burnt out or who are under threat. I have some of the correspondence sent to the gardaí in Anglesea Street and Mayfield. I have made telephone calls to them. I have documents on the policing forum and the old policy we did in Cork because we knew how dangerous it was. I have correspondence from the Minister who I contacted a number of times with questions but specifically on 31 August because two families in my constituency were petrol bombed out of their homes. There were four petrol bombings in five weeks. People are living in fear. There is a woman right now watching this debate tonight who lives alone in her home. She has been petrol bombed twice. She is a widow and she is terrified. Does the Minister know what she said? She said that the gardaí are lovely and they are doing the best. However, the Garda does not have the power or the resources. There should be a zero-tolerance approach to these people. The gardaí know who they are. I have spoken to the gardaí. They know who is doing this. In my community, there are families that have been destroyed because young people have died by suicide. Six young men died by suicide in the past couple of years, although it may be more, but they are the ones I personally know of. Can the Minister imagine the thoughts of those families when they heard what happened in Waterford? All I would say is that we need action now.

Hear, hear.

Sinn Féin is bringing forward this motion for a major crackdown on drug debt intimidation, an end to drug gangs terrorising families and long-term investment in our communities. I have heard from families in Kildare town, Athy, Derrinturn and Newbridge who are all living with threats, fear and violence. They have been left to fight this battle themselves. If we are to get serious about tackling drugs, we must be clear that drug use and addiction are first and foremost issues of healthcare. If we do not have serious, robust community supports and interventions, then we are abandoning some of our most vulnerable. The link between the communities most affected by austerity and communities suffering the most from drugs is clear for all to see. Every community deserves to feel safe, secure and protected. Alongside effective services, policing also plays a role in the fight against drug-related intimidation. While not the only part of the solution, it is a basic foundation of our communities that they be serviced by effective and visible policing. I am sure the Government would share my disappointment that Kildare South has experienced a net loss of gardaí this year when we take into account resignations and retirements. Our local authorities have a role to play here. I meet with individuals and families all the time who are facing serious dangerous intimidation in their homes and local authorities and approved housing bodies have been dragging their feet in arranging housing transfers for these people. Tackling drugs and drug-related intimidation is not confined to one Department, one agency or one body. Every Government Department, from housing to health to justice and beyond, has a role to play here. The heart of this motion is simple. Communities deserve to feel safe, protected and free from intimidation. This is the very bedrock of our society but in order for us to achieve and protect this, we need to ensure our communities are serviced by sustained effective supports and interventions and this needs to be in conjunction with community-backed, properly staffed policing.

Hear, hear.

I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. The first thing I want to do is thank Sinn Féin for putting down this motion, which the Government will be supporting. I also want to join my colleagues in expressing my condolences to the English family arising from the harrowing arson attack that was perpetrated on them. Part of the reason the Government is supporting the Sinn Féin motion is that it is extremely important there is a united response from Dáil Éíreann to the public at large stating that we are united in terms of our ambition, commitment and dedication to ensure that we combat drug-related intimidation and violence. It is regrettably the case that drug-related intimidation and violence exist throughout our society. No particular section of society is safe from it. We need to state together that there is no place for such intimidation in this country, in a civilised society, and any persons who seek to terrorise families for their own financial gain will be pursued relentlessly by An Garda Síochána. Deputy Cullinane asked who is there to protect people. I want to say to the Deputy the State and An Garda Síochána are there to protect people. The only way that we can combat this scourge of drug-related intimidation is if An Garda Síochána combats it. To do that, and I know it is extremely difficult for families who are subject to intimidation, the Garda needs to be given the information. I would urge people - anyone in this country who at present is facing intimidation in a drug-related context - to go to An Garda Síochána. I appreciate that may strike some terror into them because of the consequence and the fear they have of the person intimidating them but I would tell them, and I think this House would agree, that the only way to combat it is through An Garda Síochána being informed and involved. The drug-related intimidation and violence programme that was launched last year by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, seeks to put together a co-ordinated response by the State so that we can get a response to these acts of violence and intimidation that are ongoing. I fully appreciate that this is not solely a policing issue and it is essential that social services and the health services are involved and that we recognise the addiction that can give rise to these intimidatory practises on the part of criminals. I also have to point out, as I pointed out last Friday, that when it comes to people who make a decision early on to use drugs, they need to be informed and told that this is going to bring a load of misery on to them as a result of a decision to get involved in taking drugs. Not only does it bring misery on them individually but it can bring terrible intimidation on their families. I repeat that the only way to resolve this issue is through An Garda Síochána. I want the Deputies to know that I will resource An Garda Síochána to ensure it is able to meet this threat. The force has investigated many such cases of drugs intimidation and has secured convictions. That is a significant step and a significant measure of the Garda's success. There is no way we can solve this on our own. Individuals on their own will not be able to stand up to the intimidatory practices of drug dealers, but with the presence of An Garda Síochána and its investigative ability, I believe they will be able to do so. Looking at the resources within the force, the most important aspect of An Garda Síochána is the men and women who are members of the force. We achieved a milestone last Friday when we reached the largest number of members of An Garda Síochána in the history of the State, with the number of sworn members now standing at 14,820. Those extra resources provide an opportunity and an ability to the Commissioner to direct gardaí to combat this terrible and frightening ongoing activity. Through Operation Tara, the Garda's national anti-drugs strategy, gardaí are disrupting, dismantling and prosecuting those involved in drug trafficking and organised crime. Intelligence-led operations, co-ordinated investigations and targeted enforcement activity have led to criminal networks being deprived of drugs, cash, assets and the profits that sustain their activities. We have seen the success of the Garda when it comes to combating some of the biggest drug gangs not just in Ireland but in the world. For that success to continue, we need to come together as a society and recognise that the only way to combat this is through the work of our gardaí. I ask people to put their faith in An Garda Síochána. The work of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, together with regional Garda units and CAB, sends a clear message to those involved in intimidation and violence that no one is beyond the reach of the law. Through targeted responses such as Operation Fógra, the Garda is further putting that commitment into action by tackling drug-related intimidation through a victim-centred approach that pairs targeted law enforcement activity with practical supports for victims and their families. I encourage victims to seek support through their continued investment in our confidential reporting pathway, the Garda drug-related intimidation reporting programme. The Garda has the expertise, resources and powers to provide support and protection to victims. I appeal to victims, notwithstanding that I know it can be very intimidating for them and they can be fearful of doing it, to put their faith in An Garda Síochána.

Yesterday, people in Waterford came together to lay to rest Philip and Kim English and their young sons, Callum and Jayden. People watched online and turned out in person, standing quietly along the route, united in sorrow and wanting to show solidarity with the family. It is difficult to express what losing so many members of the English family has done. It has shaken not just Waterford but the country as a whole. The sight of four coffins side by side, two of them holding the remains of two beautiful young children who had lost their lives, is something I never again want to witness. What happened in Birchwood last week has not just left people heartbroken. People are, rightly, angry and they are searching for answers. Let us not forget that along with the four innocent lives taken, two children, 14-year-old Nadia and six-year old Elliot, continue to fight for their lives in Crumlin hospital tonight. Over the past week, I have met the neighbours, friends, teachers, community workers, voluntary organisation staff and others who have been profoundly affected by the events of last week. In the midst of this horrendous tragedy, we saw decency, compassion and kindness shown by the people of Waterford and this great country as a whole. I particularly acknowledge Ms Amy Maguire and the team at the Butler Community Centre and also the Sacred Heart Family Resource Centre, which became support hubs to help people to deal with the shock, trauma and disbelief following this awful tragedy. We in this House must acknowledge that in the worst of circumstances, communities have rallied together to offer support, counselling, practical assistance and comfort to those who need it. As Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan told mourners at the funeral yesterday, "anyone taking drugs recreationally is feeding an evil machine". It is those behind that evil machine who are responsible for four beautiful souls being laid into the ground yesterday. The realty we all must face is that the majority of people taking drugs are doing so by choice. They see it as a weekend or weekday recreation in which there is no harm. However, the results are devastating, not just for the English family but for countless families and communities up and down the country. The scourge of drugs is impacting on every village, town and city in the country. Tonight, let us be unified in sending a message from this House that we have had enough and that we are coming after the criminal thugs responsible for wreaking havoc, despair and death on communities. Let this be a watershed moment. Let us honour the memory of Kim, Philip, Callum and Jayden English not only with our words but with a clear message to the criminals that we will not stand for the extortion, threats, violence and the ending of lives. Enough is enough. This has to stop. I extend my deepest condolences to the extended English family and Companjen family, who have known unbearable grief and loss this week. As Deputies Cullinane and McGuinness said earlier, one had to be there to experience what it was like, with the silence in the church broken only by tears and seeing four coffins going into the ground, with two children laid to rest on their mother and father while two other children fight for their life tonight in Crumlin hospital. This has to stop. I thank the Minister for supporting this motion and Sinn Féin for putting it forward.

I extend my sympathy and solidarity to the English family, who suffered such horrendous loss in last week's vicious murders in Waterford. A family has been utterly destroyed, communities across Waterford are devastated and the entire nation is grieving because of the barbaric criminal actions of a drugs gang. Drug debt intimidation takes many forms, from threats and criminal damage to assaults and sexual exploitation. The drug gangs exploit the most vulnerable, who, too often, are unconnected to drugs, including parents, grandparents, siblings, other relatives and friends. They become the targets when drug payments are not made. Last week's murders have, of course, focused minds but drug intimidation and violence is not new. In Limerick, families have experienced those threats and the accompanying violence for many years. I have raised the issue of drug intimidation and violence in this Chamber many times over the years. In February 2021, I spoke of a particular estate in Limerick city where it seemed drug gangs had taken over and, what is worse, continue to operate with impunity. Without aggressive State intervention, these gangs have the resources and propensity for violence to suppress any community. In Limerick, they have built unauthorised structures and claimed public land without challenge. The structure I mentioned in 2021 remains in situ, with the local authority unable, unwilling or afraid to have it removed. Last week's murders serve as a tragic reminder of the danger of letting these gangs act with near impunity. They must be a wake-up call, as other crimes have not been to date, and the moment when citizens of the State say "no more". The murder of these children and their parents must be a starting point for aggressive action against drug gangs across the State. Our motion today sets out what is needed. We need a Garda operation to target these gangs aggressively, continued increased use of the Criminal Assets Bureau to target their ill-gotten gains, money seized by CAB to be returned to the communities most affected by this crime and a return to a community policing model to promote safer neighbourhoods. Finally, and most importantly, we must address the conditions that allow these gangs to thrive. We must offer hope to these communities by combating exclusion and poverty and implementing a targeted campaign to stop the gangs from recruiting vulnerable youths through prevention and intervention.

Behind every drug debt is a mother living in terror, a father struggling in silence and a family wondering when the knock will come to the door, or worse. The lessons from the Drogheda feud as far back as 2017 have still not been acted on by the Government. We saw drug debt being bought up by drug gangs acting like vulture funds more than a year before the feud even started. In the following years, many of those indebted addicts were the ones throwing petrol bombs, pouring petrol through letter boxes and being used as cannon fodder by unscrupulous organised criminal gangs. We saw the under-resourced Garda run out of cars and personnel trying to deal with nightly incidents of fire bombings and other attacks. I pay tribute to retired Garda Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan for his leadership and his commitment to the communities affected by the Drogheda feud. He engaged directly and worked closely with the public at a time when fear and intimidation were part of daily life. His leadership helped bring several dangerous criminals to justice. As elected representatives, there were many times when we felt helpless. We could see the fear in our communities and the damage being done. We knew more resources were urgently needed. The former chief superintendent has since revealed that as the feud escalated out of control, Garda Headquarters refused requests for the extra resources he needed to prevent an all-out bloodbath. He said he was so concerned these two drug gangs would destroy the town that at one stage, he seriously considered requesting the assistance of the Army on the streets. The Government did not take the threat of the feud seriously. It did not pay heed to the destruction being wrought and it did not allocate the necessary resources until after the brutal murder and dismemberment of a local teenager, Keane Mulready-Woods, in 2020. Although the feud has been curtailed, nearly a decade on, I am still dealing with people displaced from their homes and families affected by drug debts that are not going away. Young people are being robbed of their futures. Criminal gangs are organised, intimidation is relentless and, sadly, the resources in An Garda Síochána and community-based supports in affected areas are not sufficient. Words in this Chamber mean nothing if families do not feel safe in their own homes at night and this will not happen until we see real investment in community policing and supports. Our streets belong to our communities, not to drug gangs. We need to invest to build up these communities, not stand and watch as scumbags tear them down, taking innocent lives along the way.

I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. For years, the actions of the Minister and his counterparts have been solely reactionary. They wait until a crisis point has been reached before putting adequate resources in place and, all too often, it is only in response to an incident of great tragedy that we see meaningful action. Drugs are devastating families across Ireland. Teenagers and younger people are being groomed by these gangs and the simple fact remains that we do not have a significant number of gardaí in our communities. After 16 years of either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in power, they have only managed to add around 400 gardaí nationally, despite our population increasing by over one million people. That is an utter disgrace. Are they not embarrassed that other police forces are openly coming to Ireland and poaching some of our most experienced officers? The drugs units across four counties in my region, an area of over 540,000 people, have less than 40 gardaí assigned to them. How are we seriously expected to stop the growth of these gangs when gardaí are operating on a shoestring? Operation Fógra has been successful in tackling drug-related intimidation, but why is it that Dublin gets these specialised units while communities outside it are left to watch this crisis worsen and pick up the pieces? Where is the Operation Fógra for the south east? Will we finally see it now?

Last week, Ireland was united in grief at the devastating news of the deaths of Philip, Kim, Callum and Jayden English. Equally, we were united in horror at the circumstances of their deaths and how this brutality could occur. I think I speak for all of us when I say our thoughts remain with the two children injured in this horrendous attack. Our shared anger, shock and grief must mean that we in this Dáil do something about the scourge of drug-related intimidation happening in all our communities. They say there is not a county that is not impacted by drug intimidation, but I would say it runs far deeper than that. There is not a community that is not impacted by drug-related intimidation. For some, it is felt and seen by their community and neighbours but many others are suffering in silence and alone. This evening, while we discuss this motion, there are families in Galway and elsewhere who are terrified because they are suffocating under the weight of this burden. This is a burden that should fall on all of us collectively. It should not fall on an individual or family to deal with, who are suffering from this intimidation. It is incredibly difficult for families who are suffering from this type of intimidation not to do so in silence. I am sure a lot of us have witnessed this type of intimidation. It is nasty and scary. It is frightening for people. We need to make sure the Garda has the resources to tackle this issue head-on, whether that is through legislation or funding. We should have the burden here on us collectively and not on our communities and people individually. Our drug units and community gardaí need to have the resources.

Why have we allowed the term "life is cheap" to occur? The lack of a good response is causing an awful lot of despair throughout the country and those communities I and many of my colleagues deal with and try to help. Four years ago, I helped a mother find a safe space to receive help. She reached out following the suicide of her son and what she told me still gives me chills. He owed a drug debt and the drug gang told him either he kill himself or they would kill him. She lost her son to hanging. There is never going to be peace for this mam. It haunts her and her family forever. Arson is increasingly being used now as the tool of intimidation. Like fire itself, it knows no boundaries. It seems to have become the go-to tool of terror and murder, with deadly results. Many communities are trying to deal with this, and families are terrified, intimidated and live in fear. In the past three weeks, the Minister of State will be aware three petrol bombs were burning homes in our constituency of Dublin South-Central due to feuds and drug debts. Families were targeted and young and old - they do not discriminate. They had to leave their homes. A raging fire terrifies like nothing else and the drug lords know this. The increase in mistaken identity for fires is also a feature of this criminality. Fire is indiscriminate; it is not controlled and it is fatal. Little ones talk to their teachers about their estates that have experienced this and they are traumatised. The whole estate is traumatised, like those neighbours and firefighters in Waterford when they heard the distress, screams and terror of those trapped. This will forever remain with them. We need to act.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I begin by extending our deepest sympathies and support to the English family in County Waterford; Kim, Philip, their sons Callum and Jayden and the two children who remain in hospital. I agree this has to be a watershed moment for which we finally as a State collectively agree to get in the face of those who are perpetuating violence, intimidation and terror in communities the length and breadth of Ireland. However, I do not understand why that very moment was not last year at Christmas time, when a child of four years of age watching "The Late Late Show", Tadhg Farrell, and his great-aunt Mary Holt, were equally killed in their own home. That was the moment I expected the whole resources of the State and the collective will of Dáil Éireann to have stepped up and got in front of these thugs because we knew this violence and franchising of thuggery and terror were happening all over Ireland. The stats and figures were there and that should have been the moment. I will lament forever that it was not, but now has to be the moment. One figure stuck in my head when the Minister referred to the will of the State to confront these drug gangs. The DRIVE programme was referenced, which is run by the Department of Health. That programme was funded last year to €280,000, with an increase in funding of €65,000 announced in September. Just under €350,000 went into that programme from the State. The DRIVE programme stats show that over 1,100 people made representations seeking help from DRIVE in 2025. Effectively, this equates to just over €3 per person per family seeking help and solace. The Minister should reflect on that. There is a lot of merit in the DRIVE programme but it needs greater additional resourcing. The Minister's own Department should, at minimum, match what the Department of Health gives. Clearly, there is a significant gap there. I am someone who talks about the need to understand the causes of crime and how we get in the face of those who perpetuate it. I look around not only at my own constituency. I imagine every single speaker who stands up here tonight, including the Minister, represents a constituency where they have had families come to them asking for help because they are genuinely terrified of a knock on their door that is going to come. This is at levels I have never seen. I have been around and known violence in communities for my whole life. I have never known it to the extent that is there at the moment. It is insidious. It has a multitude of forms that I do not think this State is quite ready to recognise. The Minister referred to the legislation introduced in 2024 concerning the coercion of children into criminal activity. There have been about 17 investigations under that Act so far. The most obvious problem, and it is absolutely a problem with that Act, is that a child has to step forward in court and say, "Yes, I am being groomed, and that individual over there is the one who is grooming me into criminality." The Minister has to know, as much as everybody else, that the expectation, pressure and afterwards terror that is placed on that child is a burden too far. We need to look at how we can amend that legislation so that the one good adult who may exist in their life can step forward and take that. There are far more areas relating to drug-related deaths, crime and intimidation. That we do not have an Act on the Statute Book by which a person can be prosecuted for enforcing intimidation and coercion of a ransom by way of a threat or an act of violence is grotesquely flawed given that this is so prevalent now. I stood up in the Dáil a couple of months ago and held up a copy of the Irish Farmers Journal where the front page highlighted that farming families were having to sell off farming equipment to pay debts. I do not believe for a second, regardless of the will, that we fully understand the extent of this problem. I do not believe that the full will and the force of the State is coming down on the thugs who perpetuate this terror. There are solutions. We need to reorientate our focus. I am conscious that the Minister and the Chief Whip argued that those who purchase drugs are fuelling this. It is hard to disagree with that. I understand what they mean. Last week, however, the Department of Health launched a health-led approach to drug addiction. On one arm, therefore, the Government is telling us that it recognises that drug addiction requires a health-led approach, and I fundamentally believe that with every fibre of my being. However, when it comes to those who are perpetuating violence and those who are poisoning their communities rather than those who are impacted by the poison, it just moralises and says, "If you don't do this, they won't get that." There is an old slogan that came from the drugs marches of the nineties: "Addicts We Care - Pushers Beware". Pushers, drug dealers and gangs no longer fear this State. This State does not have a monopoly on violence when it comes to these gangs. I ask the Minister to get in front of them. We need to see more prosecution of mid- and high-level ranking members of these gangs who are perpetuating violence. Stop going after those who suffer from the poison and start going after those who poison them, because we are failing grotesquely.

Hear, hear.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. Everyone in this country was absolutely horrified and shocked by what happened with the loss of life suffered by the English family. As Deputy Gannon did, I extend my sympathies. It truly is horrific to think that those parents and children died in a petrol bomb attack of their house. Those children deserve to be waking up. They deserve to be having a Christmas. I am sickened by it and we all should be. It should be the turning point. There should have been other turning points, but this has to be the one where this does not happen again. Unfortunately, in my constituency, just two days after that attack, there was a petrol bomb attack on a house in Finglas and a family managed to escape. This State is not ensuring that children can go to sleep at night knowing that they are safe. That is a very serious indictment of the failure of this State to ensure that communities are safe. I cannot help but contrast the way in which the resources of this State were mobilised and continue to be mobilised for the EU Presidency. Yet what can we do? We cannot ensure our communities are safe. In my constituency, as I mentioned, the issue in Finglas is still there. In Ballymun, in particular, which the Minister is familiar with, there are serious issues. There are endemic levels of intimidation and violence. Shootings are going on. Children are picking up firearms in playgrounds. This is going on, but we are not seeing a sufficient response. We need to see visible Garda operations. We need to see interventions that tackle it at all levels, including diversion. I am part of the Ballymun local drugs and alcohol task force and it has asked me to raise this issue. As my colleague mentioned, the national DRIVE programme is waiting for funding from the Department of justice to match what the Department of Health has put in. The Minister should guarantee that funding is given immediately to ensure they can make the interventions that are needed. A report has been produced by the Ballymun implementation board, which the Minister has met. This is very recent. Its big concern, having talked to local groups, is that children as young as 11 years old are being groomed into criminal gangs. It details the way young people are being drawn in, gradually and often by economic vulnerability, before incurring drugs debts that are then transferred to the wider family. We need serious action on this.

I welcome Sinn Féin's work on this Private Members' motion. I am sure what I will say has been echoed in many constituencies around this country. People are terrified in their homes because of drug intimidation. Not only are they terrified in their homes of the threat of violence and petrol bombs, as Deputy Hearne in the context of his constituency, but also their neighbours are terrified because they are wondering if they will pick the wrong house and whether they and their children will die in their beds. I wish to give my sympathies to the English family. I really do not have the words. I cannot imagine what that family are going through and the poor children who are in Crumlin tonight. My thoughts are with them. Three children have died as a result of petrol bombs in the last number of months in this country. This has got to be the moment where we say "No". Even three children are too many. Even a threat to any child's safety because of drug intimidation or any type of violence is absolutely out of order. In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, things are very much on edge at the moment. Especially coming up to Hallowe'en, the level of violence, intimidation and antisocial behaviour is off the Richter scale. I wish to pay tribute to the community gardaí, who are doing everything that they can, but there are not enough of them. They are not resourced enough. They need vastly more investment in the number of gardaí who are in the constituency. The community safety partnerships need to be advertised so well. Despite all the years we had the community safety forums, lots of people still do not even they exist. Many TDs are saying if people have issues, they should go to that meeting and raise them. The more we raise what is going on in the community, the more pressure the Government will be under to put more resources in our community. However, that has to be advertised. People are being trapped in their homes by this intimidation. One of things that I found recently is that not only are they trapped in their home, but if they did want to move to have a place of safety, there is nowhere to move to because of the housing crisis in this country. They are stuck there. They are stuck in that situation. As someone who worked with young people such as those Deputy Hearne talked about, I know that Fagin's law does not go far enough. The school completion programme, youth services and schools around this country are losing children and young people every single day to crime. Even when a child is being groomed and Tusla wants to put them in a special care place, we do not have that place. We have a lot of work to do. This is the time when it needs to happen.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. It was very timely and important that a motion was put down. I am glad because across politics we all need to come together, particularly in light of what has happened. We need to come together, particularly in light of what has happened. Everyone has said this is going to be a watershed moment. I have heard that about many things down through the years. It has happened at times. It happened with Veronica Guerin and with other issues down through the years when it came to criminality. This probably needs to be the Minister's moment to make the changes that need to be made. Changes were made back then by the Minister for Defence and Ruairí Quinn when he was the Minister for Finance. We need to make a lot of changes, some relating to resources, some of them legislative and some of them involving collective campaigning and leadership. On behalf of the Labour Party, I acknowledge the loss of the members of the English family. Prayers and thoughts go out to the two young children who are in hospital. I also acknowledge the community in Waterford for the way it has rallied around. I spoke to people down there, who are so badly affected. They have come together. It is not every time that someone will stand up in the Dáil Chamber and say this, but I also acknowledge the public representatives from Waterford. They have even exemplary across the board, at all levels and from all parties and none. This is a time when leadership is needed. This was an example where everybody in public life showed huge leadership and I hope that will continue because we need to deal with this issue. I also acknowledge An Garda Síochána, which has my full support in bringing to justice not alone those who are responsible for this but also those who made the decision for this to happen. That is critical. It is nearly more important that we root out those who planned this. It was not their first rodeo. We must also root out those above them who are bringing the drugs into communities, and those above them again. The scourge of drugs is everywhere in our communities. It is in here. When I said that previously I did not realise how much attention it would get. This is a workplace. A large number of people work here. Recreational drug use happens in our midst. It happens not far from where we are sitting and standing. It happens everywhere. That is how prevalent drug use is in this country. It is in every community and sporting organisation. It is everywhere. I do not believe that we realise, or are acting to, the scale of what is out there. It is everywhere. If we are going to deal with this issue, we have to acknowledge the scale of the problem. It is not just a matter of dealing with those who are at high and medium levels of criminality and those who are pushing drugs on the ground. I believe in a health-based system for dealing with those who are users. The Minister might want to reflect on that. I was a little disappointed with what he said recently in that regard. I thought we had all moved on. I respect that we all have a journey to travel. I had to do so. I had to be educated and change my views. I have no problem admitting that. As it comes closer and closer to you as a person, when you become a parent and see this going on all over the country and all over our communities, you have to reassess your views. We have to deal with those who are using drugs through a health-led approach, in the main. A multifaceted approach is needed. We need to help those who are using drugs, cut the supply lines into our country and intercept the international gangs. We need to manage how our police force is funded and resourced to deal with this issue. We need to consider the intelligence the Garda is receiving. There is a serious cross-Border element that we need to consider. There are also issues with the access points around the country for drugs coming in. We also have to consider how those who are carrying out the intimidation and criminal activities are able to do so openly in our towns and villages and in the countryside. I represent a rural area. For many people who come from rural backgrounds and work in agriculture, on farms, on large-scale agricultural projects and in various food-related activities in many rural areas and economies, drug use is as much an issue as it is in urban areas. It is not so obvious to the eye, but it is there. I had to deal with a grandfather who has since passed away. He secretly had to pay off his grandson's debt. Otherwise, it was possible he would have been killed. He paid off debts twice because they came back a second time. That was not in an urban area. It was an isolated house in a rural area of Tipperary. It was not in the inner city of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford or Galway. The person who was affected got health-related help and has recovered. He is now living quite a good and productive life. If we are going to deal with this, resourcing the Garda is essential. I am supportive of youth diversion and the resourcing of the DRIVE project. I completely agree with my colleague that these are under-resourced. I am supportive of the various organisations in communities. All of that is important. We need a campaign and an educational process. There are organisations in this country that are massive and have impact. My local publican has multiple signs in his pub stating, "We sell Coke behind the counter. If we catch you, you'll be barred for life." It is clear and impactful. He runs his premises in such a way and events are managed in such a way that nobody will try to take cocaine. They might try, but I doubt they are going to get away with it. The point I am getting to is this. We have sporting and cultural organisations and a whole range of other organisations that we need to mobilise. I would love to do so as part of the committee I chair. I would love to see those organisations mobilised in a campaign to denormalise drug-taking in this country and to denormalise its social acceptability. In many social settings, whether in a house, a pub or wherever else, it is okay to take cocaine and other serious drugs. It is simply not okay. However, for some reason, among our middle classes, in particular, it seems to be okay. The Government should lead on the issue. We should ask the powerful large-scale sporting, cultural, industry and agriculture organisations in the country to leverage their memberships and capacity to help us to make it the watershed moment that everyone in this Chamber has spoken about. As politicians, we cannot do this on our own. The Government cannot do this on its own. The Government, working with the Opposition, can help but unless we get all of these organisations and all of these people to work with us, we will not be able to address the root cause of what happened in Waterford. The root cause of what happened in Waterford is that people want to take these drugs. Some of them are in very vulnerable situations and they need health-related help, but others are taking them for different reasons. Young people are taking cocaine because they believe it does not give them calories, does not impact them from a health perspective and does not give them a hangover. This is all utter bull. In the long term, it is still doing them damage and creating an addictive capacity, which is changing their lives. I have seen it. I have seen so many of them in trouble. I have seen people from families who no one would have expected to be affected in the way in which they are. Let this be a watershed moment. As the political class of 2026 in this Chamber, we cannot do it on our own.

Across urban and rural Ireland, in all counties, drug barons are using extortion, blackmail and intimidation. It is happening in every parish in Laois, the county I represent. Drug barons are trapping often vulnerable young people into drug use, drug dealing and criminal activity. It is the case that middle-class people use drugs for recreational purposes, but vulnerable young people are also using them. Those people who are using them for recreational purposes should stand back and take a look at themselves. These drug dealers ensnare young people through addiction and debt. These debts are collected through fear, intimidation and extortion. They are often collected outside post offices, banks and places where people receive social welfare payments and pensions. Parents and grandparents, as has been said, are targeted to pay off loans. Loans are got from moneylenders, credit unions and friends to clear drug debts. Layers of interest are added on by dealers and often by illegal moneylenders to pay these debts. In the past week, we have again seen the methods used by these thugs, with tragic consequences for the English family in Waterford. Our thoughts are with them, particularly the two boys in hospital. I hope they recover. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen a situation like this. We had the terrible case of Mary Holt and her little grandson in Edenderry. What happened there was scandalous. Other victims have been brought to isolated areas and shot dead or suffered serious injury. Young people have been stabbed in rows over drug debts in houses and in alleyways. The silence these thugs have created around their despicable criminal activity has to be broken. The Government or the Dáil Chamber cannot do this alone. This requires a whole-of-society approach. The Garda DRIVE initiative is a very good one. It is very welcome but it needs to be beefed up and expanded. I ask that this be done. We need to create a greater awareness of this initiative so that people will go to An Garda a lot earlier. We should prioritise this. We have to get to the point where victims go sooner and share as much information as possible confidentially with An Garda. The Minister will have heard that it is estimated that only one in ten is coming forward, and that is probably a best-case scenario. I welcome the fact that the Minister and the Minister of State are here. It shows that the Department is taking this matter seriously, which some Ministers, unfortunately, do not do. We have to come at this very strongly. Dealers have to be treated as pariahs in local communities, not people with status. The local drug units, which do good work, need to be resourced properly and we need to launch a major crackdown targeting dealers. There is good work ongoing, but we need to add to that work with more Garda units. Responses need to be co-ordinated at local level with gardaí, communities and community groups. I want to raise a pressing issue in this regard. We need to create good joint policing committees. I and other Deputies were on joint policing committees and they worked reasonably well. The only argument I ever made about them was that we should strengthen them further and enhance their role, but the Government abolished them. I do not get any pleasure from saying this, but unfortunately, we have created toothless talking shops called community safety partnerships. These are little more than harmless talking shops. We need proper community safety committees. I do not care what they are called but we need proper committees at local level, with gardaí, community representatives, elected representatives and other interested parties involved. We need to provide support for victimised families and they need protection, where necessary. In serious cases, and as a last resort, that may mean relocation. Obviously, we are failing when we get to that point, but where it has to be done, it should be done. The big message is that we need to break the silence the dealers have created. We need to treat them as unwanted in communities. We need well-resourced Garda drugs units to create a serious crackdown and to step up the crackdown on dealers. We cannot allow these thugs to have any level of local or national control and instil terror in families and communities. We have seen in recent months that even those who are in faraway places and at the top of the tree have been brought to justice, and all of that is welcome. The Government is going after the money and when it does so, it catches people. Everybody needs to pull together in this. We need an all-of-society approach. I hope we can step it up. There has to be a change in gear in terms of how we address what has happened and the terrible events in Waterford. We now need to step up a gear and get on top of this problem.

I express my condolences to the English family, their relatives and friends and to the Birchwood community in Waterford arising from the awful events last week. I hope that the two children still in hospital will recover quickly and go home safely. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very timely and detailed motion. I also thank the Minister for accepting it. It is important that there is cross-party support for the motion from all parties and none in the House. This issue is widespread across the country. Every TD in the Dáil knows that drugs and drug intimidation are a scourge in every corner of the country, not just in cities and towns but in rural areas as well. I also welcome the DRIVE initiative, which, as the Minister indicated, commenced last year. It is a particularly important development because it is a culture change within An Garda. Maybe I should not say this but I feel I have to. It is not too long ago that I had families coming to me looking for support in this area and telling me that they were being advised by gardaí to pay these debts. Thankfully, that has changed and I hope this initiative will bear fruit in the future. I also agree with previous speakers' points about recreational drug taking. These people bear a heavy responsibility for drug-related crime and intimidation and they need to stand back and take a good look at themselves. The full prevention of drug crime intimidation and antisocial behaviour requires a wide range of social, economic and community actions. These include things like education and training, employment, income, social inclusion, community facilities, policing and addiction and rehabilitation services. Garda policing is one of the most essential and basic elements in tackling this type of crime and antisocial behaviour. There are at least three elements to this Garda involvement. First, of course, is adequate Garda numbers to enable high visibility policing by gardaí on the beat, adequately staffed Garda drug units and a comprehensive community policing service. Community gardaí are absolutely invaluable in building up relationships with communities and with individuals within communities. Crucially, they build up a relationship, trust and friendship with young people. They become involved with local activities, youth clubs, sports clubs and resident associations. They are seen and are active in areas and, thus, prevent crime and, importantly, they identify young people at an early age who might tend to stray. Locals know these gardaí. They know their names and they have their contact details. Unfortunately, all that has been lost and the few community gardaí who are left work above and beyond and are stretched to the limit. The community Garda service has, effectively, been dismantled, especially since the introduction of the new Garda districts. The statistics do not lie. In 2010, we had 1,082 community gardaí. In August of this year, we had 592. In Tipperary, in 2010 we had 108 community gardaí. In August 2026, the Clare and Tipperary Garda division had 18 community gardaí. The community Garda service must be re-established and staffed up to at least the 2010 levels. The small number of Garda drug units and gardaí attached to these units would appear to suggest that the Government is not really taking the whole drug threat seriously. Garda statistics show that nationally there are only 339 attached to these units as of February 2026. The Clare and Tipperary division has only 17 gardaí in these units. That is for an area stretching from Limerick city up to the Galway border and from the bridge in Portumna down to Carrick-on-Suir - an impossible task. The policy in recent years of prioritising Dublin, Cork and Galway for the allocation of newly attested gardaí has made matters considerably worse in rural Ireland and in places like south Tipperary. Last week, 207 gardaí were attested and 160 of those went to Dublin and the east. South Tipperary got the crumbs. It got five gardaí: two in Nenagh, two in Clonmel and one in Tipperary town. That leaves Clonmel Garda station with nine fewer gardaí than it had in 2024. We need to beef up the Garda presence throughout the country.

Philip and Kim English, Callum, aged 12, and Jayden, nine years old, were killed in their own home in Waterford over a debt that was not theirs. In Edenderry, we had a four-year-old child, Tadhg Farrell, and his grand-aunt Mary being killed. I use those names because there are a lot of people out there who would ask that we would not use those names or that we would not to mention them, in particular those gangs that are involved. They want us to forget those names. It is vitally important that these names, and the tragedy that happened in Waterford, in Edenderry, and other events that have happened around the country, leave an indelible mark upon this House. Like everybody on all sides of the House, I have witnessed it in my constituency. I have sat in kitchens with mothers and fathers in floods of tears, not just because their child had a drug problem but because their child was in so much debt. Some of them were serving prison sentences in Cork Prison, some had moved out of the house and some were in homeless accommodation or in homeless services. The then family gets a knock on the door from thugs. That is all they are - absolute thugs. In the case of one particular family in Cork North-Central, who I will not name for obvious reasons, they are using an enforcement group or gang from Dublin to come down. These gangs are working out deals with mothers and fathers, people in their 50s. They are saying to them that if they cannot pay the debt, they will work off the debt, and will either have to get involved in intimidation themselves or start running drugs for the gang, driving cars and delivering here and there. I have had people in floods of tears who have been on to local authorities. They spoke to local authorities to say they need to get out of their property. Local authorities cannot help them because they say they cannot move people because of antisocial behaviour. I have seen gardaí upset and perturbed because they feel under-resourced and not listened to, in particular the liaison gardaí who are working their fingers to the bone. It is all very well for us to get up in this House to say what a shame and what an awful tragedy this is but we need to be moving quicker and stronger. We have to get stronger with the Criminal Assets Bureau. We have to move more powers over to it. These guys are quite often going in collecting their dole on a Wednesday, wearing €500 sneakers, bracelets, Rolex watches and so on. Why are we not going after them when they have the missus in the car with a designer handbag and no real way of proving how they are on the dole and living a lifestyle like that? They are involved in intimidation. We know them. We have seen them. I have seen them at the doors. Then they are using kids under the age of 18 to firebomb houses, to attack and to threaten people. We have to go after these people. We have to strengthen the powers of the Criminal Assets Bureau to go after those particular small-time drug dealers. What I mean by a small-time drug dealer is a guy who is intimidating for €20,000 or €30,000. I had a situation recently in Cork where a young man told me that his dad bailed him out of €30,000 worth of debt. His father had to borrow, beg and steal to try to find that €30,000. It is not acceptable. We need to move faster on that.

I will start by extending my sincere sympathies to the English family on the deaths of Philip, Kim, Callum and Jayden in the horrific happenings of last week. I also extend my sincere sympathies to Kim's family who are from Courtmacsherry in my constituency. It opened our eyes to the dangers of drugs, having being brought up in times when drugs were not a huge issue. It shows the crisis it is now. I was listening to the radio during the week when the intimidation was being spoken about. I listened to a doctor who deals with people in relation to drugs issues. Some Deputies are talk about encouraging small-time drugs here but I wonder is that ever the right road to travel. I think it is clear now that it is not. When you start small, you unfortunately end up in the big game. I heard a doctor say that they go as far as seeing the person they are chasing dead and they continue to try to get their money in whatever way. When the person has passed away, they go to the funeral and threaten the family either in the church or at the funeral home. That is an astonishing situation in which we find ourselves. It tells you that law and order has broken down when people are terrified, afraid to open their mouths and fight back. We need more Garda resources. There is no doubt about that. I have very serious concerns that my constituency has been overlooked for the last three times. I have brought this up with the Minister on numerous occasions, including last week. It has been overlooked in relation to gardaí being appointed to it. We have gardaí who have retired and who are out sick. There are genuine reasons. I do not understand for the life of me why a costal community in the south west where drugs are continuously coming in should be overlooked. There is no point in saying they are not. It is foolish person who would say here, or anywhere else, that this is not happening. We are being left wide open. For some reason, whether because of the Garda Commissioner or the Minister, the allocation of gardaí to west Cork was zero this time. It was zero the last time, the time before and the time before that. I do not understand how anybody thinks a chief superintendent is supposed to fill positions. Is the attitude for Drimoleague and places like that to keep them closed and move on? Scale them down or move on and let the drug guys haul them in left, right and centre and then move on because we do not police our coast. I do not know where the Government is sending them but it is certainly not sending them down to us. For the likes of Kinsale, Bandon, Clonakilty, Bantry, Macroom, Skibbereen, Castletownbere and Schull, our communities deserve the same level and protection and policing as other parts of the country. Rural crime, burglary, drug related offences, antisocial behaviour and road safety concerns do not disappear simply because people live outside our cities. West Cork is a large geographic coastal area with scattered communities and long travel distances. Our gardaí are working hard but they cannot be everywhere. They need support at once and they need reinforcement. I am calling on the Minister for justice and the Garda Commissioner to explain to west Cork why this continues to be overlooked.

I send my deepest sympathies to the English family in Waterford. There are two children and their parents dead, with two more children fighting for their life. An innocent family was targeted for a debt that was not theirs. It is the most shocking situation. We will be supporting the Bill and will also support Deputy O'Flynn's amendments on CAB and the child trafficking element too. I am aware of situations in my own constituency of Mayo where young people get addicted to drugs, build up a debt and have then emigrated. The gangs are targeting their families and parents. I am aware of one case where the gangs have targeted a vulnerable aunt and uncle in the family. They arrived at night time into their house with balaclavas and so on. What is happening is absolutely frightening. The saddest thing is that so many families live in fear and do not report for fear of repercussions for their loved one. That is frightening and is happening in so many cases all over this country. We absolutely need to tackle it. We need to address it. We need to introduce a new law as a stand-alone piece of legislation. We absolutely need tougher sentencing. It has been reported that the suspects involved in this case were on temporary release. There have been 1,600 individuals on temporary release in the first six months of 2026. Why is this happening? Because there is no prison capacity. It is operating at 120% capacity. What does it mean to the gardaí who are working so hard to put these individuals behind bars and see them out on temporary release? Sentencing must mean something and crime must have consequences. We are treating the criminal thugs far too leniently. When will there be a new prison? We need to build a new prison and it is high time we treat crime and thugs with the full consequences of the law. The divisional drugs unit does tremendous work but it is simply under-resourced. In the region I am from, the divisional unit of Mayo, Longford and Roscommon has in the region of 12 members of the divisional drug squad across three counties and a massive coastline. I attended an event in Belmullet last year where I was told stories from the drugs squad and all of the other agencies about the drugs that are coming in because of the massive coastline Mayo has. This is simply unacceptable because drugs are terrorising families in terms of drug intimidation but destroying the lives of young people. I believe we also need to tackle this on a societal level. We need to tackle it in schools and clubs. We need to denormalise drug-taking in this country because all of these people are responsible and fuelling what is happening across this country.

Now there is consensus in the House and the Government is not challenging the motion, I am happy to leave it go ahead at the moment. I ask the Minister to have a read of it when he has a chance.

I presume some of that time is coming back to me?

Gabhaim buíochas. The Minister will be aware of the drug related intimidation and violence engagement, DRIVE, report that found there were over 1,000 cases of intimidation in every county between 2024 and 2025. Almost two thirds of the victims lived with family members. Drug debt was a factor in over two thirds of cases, with amounts between €100 and €20,000. As Deputy Lawless said before me, a lot of cases are not reported. Recently, I heard through the grapevine of someone over on the northside of the city - not in my constituency - where there were five or six teenagers who rushed into a house past the two grandparents looking for a young lad who owed money for drugs. The grandfather said something and got a whack in the face. He basically got beaten up. They did not report it, to my knowledge, because they were absolutely afraid. That situation is happening across the country. We know there are no consequences for low level antisocial behaviour to catch the hangers-on but this is a higher level of stuff. There need to be serious consequences for those who are abusing young children in this way. There need to be consequences for the young children who think it is the flash thing to do but we obviously need juvenile resources from that point of view as well. Equally, those who can afford to and the more affluent groups in our society who think it is okay to have a social go of cocaine bear responsibility and the Minister said it on media interviews himself. I would like to see consequences for their responsibility because these people should know better and if they are involved in taking cocaine, they are responsible for families like the English family. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends and relatives. They are equally as responsible and they need consequences as well so they are not actually buying into this market.

I wish to begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the extended English family on the deaths of their family members due to an arson attack. I also remember the two children who are critical in hospital at this time and the grief-stricken community in Waterford. Unfortunately, as has been said here by many TDs, this is too common. It is across the country. My own county of Offaly knows only too well what happens when violent criminality is allowed to take root in a community. The horrific deaths of Tadhg Farrell and Mary Holt in Edenderry remain etched in the memory of our county. While criminal proceedings are ongoing and must take their course, we cannot stand over a situation where communities are left feeling abandoned while criminals spread fear and misery. That is why people will be astonished to learn that County Offaly has received just one additional garda from the most recent allocation. At a time when concerns about drug-related intimidation are increasing, unfortunately, that is all we are being offered. It is not right. I ask for a much bigger allocation and further engagement with the Garda Commissioner because County Offaly needs more resources and gardaí. Areas like Edenderry, which have been left under-resourced for too long, need to be looked after, as do many other areas in the county. Criminal gangs do not operate with one hand tied behind their backs, as we know. Yet, the State continues to ask gardaí to police our communities with inadequate numbers and stretched resources. I am mentioning Edenderry again because it does not have a full-time Garda station and that is not acceptable. A town of its size, a huge town with a growing population, should have a full-time Garda station and I have committed to the people of Edenderry that I would raise that here today. Again, I call on the Minister of State to look at Edenderry Garda Station, and more resources for it and for gardaí across County Offaly. The first duty of any Government is to protect its citizens. Families should not live in fear in their own homes. Parents should not have to worry that their children are being targeted by drug gangs. Elderly people should not have to look over their shoulder because criminals believe they own a housing estate, a street or an entire community. Unfortunately, that is what is happening. The message from this House must be absolutely clear: we will not surrender our towns, villages and housing estates to drug gangs or thugs. We need more gardaí, tougher enforcement, stronger victim supports and real consequences for those who prey on vulnerable families. Fine words are no substitute for action and, of course, the basics have to be in place. The hours of Garda stations have to be increased and there needs to be more visibility. The only way the Garda can ensure increased visibility is by having the resources and the numbers. It is shameful that County Offaly was given just one additional garda, despite what happened in Edenderry last year. Deputy Ken O'Flynn's amendment rightly acknowledges a reality that many families face. The people being terrorised are often not those who incurred the debt but their innocent parents, grandparents or children, and that is what we have seen. The State must ensure that these families can access immediate protection, housing support and a rapid Garda response when criminal gangs come calling. I am calling again here tonight for law and order. People in communities deserve to feel safe; it is a basic right. Unfortunately, they do not and we need increased resources.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this debate this evening. I am glad this motion has been accepted because I think the Minister and Minister of State can hear, across the Chamber and across the political divide, that there is a common view here. It is a shared experience in every constituency. Like others, at the outset, I wish to express my deepest sympathies to the English family in Waterford. It is absolutely heartbreaking to see four coffins but, in particular, the coffins of those two perfect young boys gone to an early grave. They should be heading into the Hallowe'en break from school next week and enjoying all that would have promised for them. To be going to an early grave is absolutely disgusting. It is so upsetting for the nation and I think it is right that this is all debated here in the House tonight. We must finally shatter the comfortable illusion that casual drug use is a victimless lifestyle choice. It is not harmless. Every single line of cocaine or recreational pill bought in this country directly funds and sustains a multimillion euro criminal enterprise. That casual transaction is a direct investment in a trade that takes many innocent lives with it. The horrific tragedy we witnessed in Waterford shocked the entire nation, as I said, but let us be painfully honest in this Chamber tonight. What happened in Waterford could have happened anywhere in Ireland. Indeed, as the last speaker said, it happened in County Offaly just a few months ago. In my own constituency of Clare, I am told of harrowing, stomach-churning accounts. I have been reliably informed of one gang operating in the west of Ireland that has now resorted to using sexual violence to enforce drug debts. They rape men and women or threaten to rape family members if the debts are not paid. This barbaric cruelty goes entirely unreported because families fear that if they report the rape, they will be murdered. I also know of an equally depraved case of a young man in my own county who had successfully beaten his addiction. He went in for four or five weeks' rehabilitation in a treatment centre. That was successful but because of his recovery, it meant that a lucrative customer was lost to the drug dealer. A few days after returning home, his door was beaten down, he was held down in the hallway of his house and he was injected with heroin because by injecting the heroin, the lucrative customer was back again. That is absolutely disgusting and it is an illustration of the sheer, unadulterated evil we are dealing with here. Meanwhile, in towns and villages across Clare, and this could be anywhere in Ireland, we see dealers living large. They do not hold down employment, yet hard-working residents are expected to ludicrously accept the flashy cars in their driveways, the bling jewellery and the multiple sun holidays. Members of the public are not fools. While there is a really good Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, that investigates those on the front page of the Sunday World and the big-name crime families in Ireland, we are going to need a regional, sub-layer of CAB that looks at that village housing estate and the small-town criminal who is taking his community for a ride. We also need to start treating deaths as a direct consequence of the illicit drug trade as homicide. I refer to people who have died as a result of the direct use of drugs but also people who have taken their lives. I know of several funerals in different parts of the country where someone took their life because they knew if they did not, it was going to be taken for them by thugs within a matter of days. That needs to be treated as homicide when it is being investigated by the Garda. The families and friends of these individuals need to do some deep soul-searching. They need to look at the incredible gifts that are showered on them and ask themselves what is really funding them. Is your son really the great lad you think he is, or is he a monster, wrecking lives and taking young people's lives with him? Some politicians also need to stop fraternising with the drug-dealing community. We must take back our communities and resource our Garda. We need to expand CAB and reclaim our streets.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion today. I have listened to the debate in this House and to Members' sincerity and informed contributions. As the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and other Deputies stated, we are seeing a united approach to these egregious crimes being committed across our constituencies. I wish to send my condolences to the English family and the wider Companjen family on the deaths of Kim, Philip, Jayden and Callum. Our immediate thoughts are with Nadia and Elliot, who are in Crumlin children's hospital fighting for their lives. These serious arson attacks are becoming more rampant across our communities. Many of us have spoken to constituents who have either been victims of these crimes or are dealing with family members who are the victims of these crimes. In our own constituency, Deputy Ó Snodaigh and I have seen people who have been the victims of mistaken identity whose houses were petrol-bombed. We had three instances of petrol-bombing in Dublin South-Central in the past four weeks. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and I know the seriousness, and the insidious and hidden nature of this issue. As was pointed out, not everyone is reporting these crimes; they are afraid to report them. A message that has to come out of the House today is that people should please report the crimes. An Garda Síochána is there and is resourced. It wants to hear about these crimes and act on them. Please trust An Garda Síochána to act on these crimes. We know that drug-related intimidation extends far beyond those directly involved in drug use. I have dealt with parents, grandparents, siblings and other innocent family members who have been threatened and targeted over alleged drug debts. Organised crime groups deliberately use fear, violence and intimidation to exert control over our communities, but we will have zero tolerance for drug debt-related intimidation. It is our aim that no family, community or person should live in fear of this. I hope this will be a watershed moment. We will and have been targeting top-level criminals. We are determined to target the gangs that are thriving in our communities, the organisers and financiers at a much higher level. We have to ensure that the victims and families are at the centre of everything we do in terms of victim protection. As others have said, we have to follow the money. We have been really successful. It was after Veronica Guerin's tragic death that we established the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. It is something other countries look at and it is hugely successful, but it has to be extended. We have to consider a mini-CAB because we are seeing people going around wearing designer handbags and driving luxury cars in a manner clearly associated with a life of criminality. We have to ensure we break the cycle. The message has to come from this House that we stand with victims and will not tolerate this type of egregious crime. We are determined to ensure that those who are involved in criminality are relentlessly pursued by An Garda Síochána, prosecuted and convicted, and deprived of all the profits they sustain from these awful and harrowing activities that have destroyed families across the country and those living in our communities. There is absolutely no place in our country for this type of uncivilised behaviour. We will absolutely not accept it. As the Minister pointed out, law enforcement is central to our response, but enforcement alone cannot address the harm caused by drug-related intimidation. That is why the Government is pursuing a dual strategy, relentlessly targeting organised crime groups while ensuring individuals and families affected by intimidation can access practical support and protection. I reiterate our call to please report these terrible crimes and intimidation. In addition, we are building resilience, strengthening trust and ensuring people know that support is available when they need it. Just last month, Operation Tara, an intelligence-led operation involving the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and regional Garda units, resulted in the seizure of cocaine worth approximately €1.6 million, heroin valued at over €500,000, cash and vehicles, along with multiple arrests. Operation Tara is just one example of the ongoing work taking place every day across our country. The Government's message is clear. Those who engage in intimidation, extortion or violence will face the full force and rigour of the law. Resourcing is reflected in our recent budget. The commitment provides an additional €167 million for An Garda Síochána, bringing the overall Garda budget to €2.7 billion. There is support for the recruitment of up to 1,000 new gardaí next year, and to strengthen both front-line and specialist policing capabilities. This brings our force to a total of nearly 14,828, including 27 gardaí for Waterford last Friday. While enforcement is critical, we also have to recognise that drug-related intimidation presents unique challenges. It inflicts profound harm on individuals and communities. Victims often feel isolated, frightened and unaware. The Government's national drugs strategy provides a comprehensive framework for tackling the harms associated with drug use, including drug-related intimidation and violence. Other Members referred to drug-related intimidation and violence engagement, DRIVE. This is one of the central elements of the Government's drug-related intimidation response. It is a national interagency initiative that supports individuals and communities affected by drug-related intimidation and drug threats. The Government remains fully committed to expanding this work, and budget 2027 provides an additional €300,000 in recurring funding, doubling investment in the programme and supporting its continued expansion across the country. One of the most disturbing aspects of organised crime is the exploitation of children and young people. As many Members know, I have responsibility for youth justice. We know that criminal gangs deliberately target vulnerable young people and seek to draw them into criminality, including intimidation, and debt. This exploitation of our beautiful children, mostly boys, will not be tolerated. The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act provides new tools to target those who groom, recruit or exploit children for criminal purposes. Alongside this, the response includes continued investment in youth justice, with youth diversion receiving an extra €11.5 million in the recent budget, bringing the total funding to over €50 million. This includes funding the nationwide network of 92 youth diversion projects and four specialised youth diversion projects around the country, including two further targeted youth diversion projects. These services have practical interventions for young people. We know that youth diversion works and it will be supported. We must also recognise that community safety cannot be delivered by just one agency. We must see an intergovernmental approach. We are working with local community safety partnerships, the Garda, the HSE, Tusla, community organisations, residents, communities and education to bring that all together. By bringing together local knowledge, public services and community leadership, we can develop responses that are tailored to meet local needs and focus on prevention as well as enforcement. The Government also wants to send a clear message to victims and families that help is available. No family should feel abandoned. No parent should feel they have nowhere to turn. Anyone who becomes the target of drug-related intimidation should immediately report it to An Garda Síochána. As the Garda Commissioner has repeatedly emphasised, gardaí have the expertise, powers and resources to support and protect victims, but they can only act on the information they receive. Finally, I would like to address to the issue of casual drug use. As others have stated, casual drug use is not a victimless crime. I urge anyone who uses illegal drugs to reflect carefully on the consequences of their choice. Let me be absolutely clear. Those who purchase illicit drugs are helping to fund the very criminal network that inflicts fear, harm and devastation on our communities. Such purchasing bankrolls the organised crime groups that prey on vulnerable people and children. It undermines our community safety, and profits from other people's human misery. The Government condemns those who use violence, threats and intimidation to control communities. We stand with victims and families affected by these crimes all across the country. They do not discriminate. We remain committed to a comprehensive response that combines strong law enforcement with practical supports, prevention measures, community resilience and sustained investment. Together we can ensure that organised criminal groups do not dictate the future of our communities, that victims receive the support they deserve and that every person can feel safe where they live, work and raise a family.

I offer my condolences to the English family and express my hope that the two children who are fighting for their lives will recover. No matter what, their lives will never be the same again. In my community over the past two years, over 15 homes have been burned to the ground. Many others have been damaged, shot at, attacked or had windows smashed. Thankfully, we have not had what we have seen in Waterford. I personally know of a family who have had to pay over €50,000 to drug dealers. Many others are paying up to hundreds of euro every single week. I have met families who have had to uproot themselves from their communities after living in them for 40 years. Others who cannot leave have to sit night after night with fire extinguishers at the ready, sleeping in shifts. It is becoming normalised. Drug debt intimidation is nothing new in our communities. It is a daily occurrence and has been for years. Those of us who have worked on the front line in family support, drug services and rehabilitation know that we cannot police ourselves out of this situation, but for now we need a dedicated policing response to help our communities feel safe. While we are calling for a Garda response, I note that hundreds of gardaí are brought in from stations across Dublin to police the EU Presidency and no overtime has been spared. Our community would love to see that sense of urgency and unlimited overtime on our streets. I have again and again in our community raised the issue of a gang dealing openly in broad daylight, sucking younger and younger people into drug dealing and criminality. We are watching this every day. Across Dublin West, drug gangs feel untouchable and are operating with impunity. In the long term, we need a trauma-led response and to get in there early to work with families and young people through our youth and counselling services. We need to keep young people in school and provide decent housing and jobs. The youth service in Blakestown and Mountview spent a huge amount of time and energy looking for funding to work with young people and was a few weeks ago denied it for the very outreach teams we are looking for. I urge that we look at that type of funding for those projects.

We have had the slaughter of a family, Philip, Kim, Callum, and Jaden, and all our thoughts are with Nadia and Elliot. We need to ensure that both the caring and policing resources required are provided. This is not the first time any of us has had to deal with the issue of organised drug criminality and the violence that stems from it, whether we are talking about intimidation, threats, violence, destruction of property, injury or death. In Waterford, what we had was a family wipeout. It happened so somebody could profit off the back of drug dealing and a debt that they allowed a family member to rack up. That is actually better business than straight drug dealing. We have all seen it too many times before. I welcome the Minister's statement that this is a watershed moment. We can all talk of what happened to Tadhg Farrell and Mary Holt when they were slain in Edenderry. Maybe that and many other cases should have been the starting point, but we have to start from somewhere. This is not the first time I have brought up the issue of drug criminality with the Minister, yet we have got nowhere in relation to it. We need to have a very real conversation. I am fully into trauma-informed, health-led harm reduction and making sure we do not jam our courts with young people with serious addiction problems when we need to give them support. However, we are talking about people who engage in sexual exploitation who have been able to operate for years, and huge criminal networks and muscle. In most cases, they have become much cleverer and much more discreet in how they operate. We all know this goes on in every estate and every one of our towns. We know this is across the board. We know people who have been dealing drugs for years, and while I have seen great work done by the Garda, we are nowhere near dealing with this. We need wider family supports and all of the other things I have spoken before about.

Drug-related deaths and intimidation in areas like Finglas and Ballymun have been going on for years. Criminal gangs are targeting families over drug debts acquired by a member of the family or a close relative. The intimidation tactics include physical assaults, property damage and attacks on the family home, with windows being broken, cars being burnt out and homes being petrol-bombed. Criminal groups are increasingly shifting the burden of a relative's drug debt onto parents, spouses and even grandparents, and are using threats and fear tactics to extract money to pay for their relative's drug debt. Parents have gone as far as having to remortgage their homes to pay off a drug debt. Many incidents of intimidation go unreported for fear of repercussions and are not even recorded. What compounds this is the low number of prosecutions of those involved in the intimidation. Often, young people with drug debts are exploited by drug gangs and pressurised into holding and delivering drugs, collecting money and carrying out acts of intimidation. There have also been cases where families are targeted in a case of mistaken identity. Recently, a house in Meakstown was petrol bombed and the family, who had no connection with drugs or the drug trade, barely escaped with their lives, having to make their escape by climbing out the windows of the house. Even after the tragedy in Waterford, a house was targeted in Finglas and firebombed. Areas like Finglas and Ballymun suffer from a lack of visible, dedicated policing. This has a real impact in areas where drug dealing is visible and pervasive and it negatively impacts on the confidence local communities have in An Garda Síochána to tackle this criminal activity. The tragedy in Waterford should be a wake-up call to the Government and also to those who buy and use drugs. Drug dealers have shown time and again that they do not care who gets in their way.

The Minister of State said in her closing remarks that the Government wants to send the clear message to victims and families that help is available and that no family should feel abandoned and no parent should feel they have nowhere to turn. She said that anyone who becomes the target of drug-related intimidation should report it to An Garda Síochána. I echo the call that people should come forward to An Garda Síochána and report any crime, including, of course, drug-related intimidation. However, the problem is that families feel abandoned and that is because of fear. Even when families come forward to the Garda, that fear is heightened because they feel they may be targeted. The Minister of State said no parent should feel they have nowhere to turn but many families feel exactly that because they have watched as other families were victimised and terrorised, with their homes targeted. As we tragically saw in County Waterford, people have lost their lives. While the Government has to send a very clear message to the victims of crime, we have to send a much tougher message to the perpetrators of those crimes. That message has to be very clear, that there is no hiding place for them, the full force of the law will be brought to bear on all of those criminal gangs and the State will hunt them down, if that is what is necessary, and make sure they are brought to justice. I finish by commending An Garda Síochána and the superintendent and chief Superintendent, whom I spoke to at the funeral yesterday. They said there will be more arrests, no stone will be left unturned and An Garda Síochána will do everything and anything to bring the perpetrators of those four murders to justice. That is what we all want to see, but we want to see it for every single one of those criminal gangs that are doing what they are doing across the State.