Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú: I concur with an awful lot of what has been said. We will all be supportive of this. We are all aware of backlogged court systems. It is a trite statement on some level to say justice delayed is justice denied but it is very true. I remember doing jury duty and dealing with an assault case. I will not go into the ins and outs of it but the fact is we were dealing with something that had happened four years previously. I do not see that anybody is served by this type of delay and we are all aware of it. In fairness, it is "sooner better quicker" and this is absolutely necessary. We know every town and village is dealing with a serious level of crime, whether we are speaking about burglary or drugs, and by drugs I do not think the Minister of State will be shocked to learn that I am speaking about drug debt intimidation and those particular threats of violence and violent acts. We need a court system that can deal with these people as quickly as possible.

We all welcome the fact that a citizens' assembly is happening and there is a wider issue that needs to be dealt with. I am the greatest proponent there is for youth diversion and the importance of it and of family and community intervention at a very early stage. This is from a point of view of levelling the playing field. Whether we are speaking about organised crime or disorganised crime and criminality, in an awful lot of cases poverty and multigenerational trauma are issues. If we do not intervene and take action we will continue to have these particular issues. Therefore, it is "quicker better faster". We just need to make it happen as quickly as possible.

I hope the Minister of State and others were listening to some of what was said by Deputy Daly and particularly by Deputy Tully who spoke about safety orders and barring orders and the length of time they take. I think we know when we are speaking about systems across the board that there is an absolute need and necessity for streamlining and for anything that can be put in various alleyways to get the job done better for people. We are speaking about people who find themselves in very tight and difficult situations. We are speaking about spousal abuse and children who can be in very bad circumstances and situations. We need justice to be very swift in these circumstances.

I welcome the fact we are speaking about a greater number of judges while I accept that we cannot overpolice the particular issues we have in society. We need to look at an holistic means of dealing with them. I support the Bill. We know we do not have the judges we need to deal with the situations we have but we must also put in a lot more, whether we are speaking about policing resources, which are absolutely necessary as is community policing, or about all of the other interventions.

[For the full debate, click here to the Oireachtas website]