Action on poverty urged to counter crime rise

THE managing director of An Post has said all political parties must support the channelling of resources into the most disadvantaged areas of Dublin to contain the "chronic crime crisis".

Mr John Hynes was addressing a seminar organised by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce yesterday in his capacity as chairman of the chamber's security working party.

People in grossly deprived areas must be given the prospect of a future, he warned. Otherwise, the city would turn into "fortress Dublin, with gated residential areas", people living behind shutters, "and our daughters carrying mobile telephones so they can call us if they are in trouble."

Channelling resources into disadvantaged areas might not be politically advantageous in the short term, but most political parties would agree that it was necessary, he said.

"It is a sound and sensible strategy. We need to turn young people growing up now away from crime or we are facing a very depressing future."

"There are areas in this city with the worst concentration of poverty and deprivation and despair in the whole country," he continued.

"I am fascinated by how few Dublin politicians are identified with this as an issue in the way the west of Ireland politicians identified with the campaign to maintain the stopover at Shannon, or how few bishops have identified with the problems of the city and its youth compared to the campaigning bishops of the West."

The direct cost of crime to Dublin business is in the region of £150 million per year, he said.

Mr Ted Corcoran, district manager at Heuston Station, said the Government did not know the answer to the crime problem "or there is some ultra liberal part of this establishment that says we can't go down the hard road, that if we love these people enough the problem will be solved."

He contrasted what he described as the urgency behind progress on the Equal Status Bill with the Government's "hesitancy" about "getting around to taking firm action against crime".

A representative of Risk Management International, a consultancy which advises individuals and companies on how to guard against kidnapping and extortion, said many of his clients feared for their safety and did not have confidence in the Government's ability to handle the problem.

The concept of rehabilitating criminals in prison "is a load of rubbish. We are 15 years behind the United States, where they are saying, let's forget about rehabilitation, let's just get retribution."

He said he did not want his named published for reasons of "personal security".

Mr Hynes said the chamber was very concerned about the Equal Status Bill, adding: "A new mini industry will be created in the city with people being sued for trying to keep blackguards out of their businesses.