Minister defends Asbos as the way forward

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has defended plans to introduce British-style anti-social behaviour orders after they were…

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has defended plans to introduce British-style anti-social behaviour orders after they were rejected by the Garda Representative Association at the weekend.

In Boston yesterday during a US tour, he said Irish taxpayers needed "more bang for their buck" and simply giving more money to more gardaí was not going to solve Ireland's crime problem.

Mr McDowell said he had read media reports in which a GRA spokesman described the planned anti-social behaviour orders as "window dressing" that did not get to the root of the youth crime problem. He expected the GRA to want more money for everything but this could not solve crime by itself and antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos) were the way forward, along with greater funding for community policing.

"If a group of kids are making a little old lady's life difficult by drinking in her garden, increasing the number of gardaí is simply not enough, we need the power to deal with the problem," he said.

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Mr McDowell was speaking after visiting a community policing project in Dorchester, Boston, to learn how the city has reduced crime over the last 10 years. He also met Boston police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole, a former member of the Patten Commission on Northern Ireland police reform.

He rejected comments by Dr Ann Hope, the national alcohol policy adviser at the Department of Health, who warned that his calls for cafe bars could lead to more binge-drinking among young people. Her comments followed similar statements by the Irish Medical Organisation and Dr Joe Barry, a member of the National Drugs Strategy Team.

Mr McDowell said he was was "very, very disappointed" by Dr Barry's reported comments that a greater availability of alcohol could lead to more suicides, traffic accidents and house fires.

"We need to ask ourselves what planet we're on," the Minister said said. "Blaming cafe bars for binge-drinking is like the Romans blaming immorality in Pompeii for the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it's an exaggeration."

Mr McDowell will be in Washington tomorrow to meet US attorney general Alberto Gonzales, before moving on to New York to meet New York police commissioner Ray Kelly.