Mattie McGrath Accuses Rogue Security Squads of Violent Evictions

I want to compliment Deputy O'Leary and Deputy Kenney for bringing forward this piece of very badly needed legislation, very badly, because you and I are aware of the case, Minister, and I wish you well in your role too, because it's the first time I address you maybe in this house, of the Hendrick family, friends of your dad and friends of yourself, down in Kilkenny, and they're appalling the way they were treated back a number of years ago. Deputy Carl Knowles, Deputy Michael Collins and myself, had the head of the private security industry in here, in this house, to meet Mr Paul Scanlon, as a result of what went on in the roadside in Kilkenny, as a result of what went on in the White family, under Steve's fame, Steve Neman, Gickham Country, on the Tipperary, for tugs arrived in the middle of the night and broke into their property, caused them total damage and took away machinery, tugs, and had a guard of the police car, or a guard of the car, sitting at the gate of their house, while this was going on, this wouldn't happen in Mugabe's Africa, and that's exactly what it was, we saw what happened in Roscommon, and I'm not going to do wrong as a writer, but I am going into the fact that we have mercenaries coming from outside the state, Northern Ireland, former SAS people, some coming from some foreign countries, and blindfolded with balaclavas, they were well trained for the masks for COVID, because they're well used to wearing thick balaclavas, you'd only barely see their eyes, clothed with knuckle dusters, the kind of equipment that they had, in many cases, and the injuries that they did, actually, on Hendrick that night, that nearly kicked them to death, and I'm sure Deputy Howland is aware of it too, and thank God he's grown young men now, but that much of his life, with the kicking he got, that his lungs weren't punctured, with his ribs that were broken, they pulled him off the tractor, and, I mean, just because he was trying to take a photograph of him, driving his father's tractor, down a country road, barbaric, I waited two hours for a gadda cat to come, barbaric, under the law, and no law to deal with it, so I wish you well, and I hope you do, embrace this legislation, and deal with it, because we met, as I said, the chair of Mr Paul Scallon, and gave rise to serious concerns about the capacity of the state to effectively sanction unlicensed security personnel. The group had organised, our group had organised that meeting to try and address the apparent lack of sanctions for those who engage in aggressive acts of intimidation, while purporting to be linked to licensed security agents. And we see in the Roscommon case, where some of the members that took part in that barbaric, dragged the poor man out of the house by the ear, everyone could see it, they were fined for that, heavy fines, but that's all they got, slap on the wrist, heavy fines is not for them, because they are after blood money, massive money to do the dirty work for the banks, and evictions have massive connotations in this country, where we can't, that's why the new land league was set up and formed, and Gerry Bede, the president of that office, attended that meeting with us, and with a further meeting in the security, headquarters in Tipperary, but the legislation hasn't been enacted, and to make it worse, we found out after that meeting, we found out that, as I said, it was organised as part of a wider issue, to have all the stakeholders concerted, and indeed the homeowners and property owners, who have, and many of them got very little protection from the courts, because many of them had to go in as lay litigants, and in some cases I was there with some of them, and I was there, and I was there when one lady was brought from Cork in a prison van, she was traumatised, and she couldn't stand up, she was screened at by the judge to stand up, she was unable to stand up, physically, I wasn't able to speak up either, the trauma of it, and what's going on, and then in the middle of Covid, you went off, and you removed, inside medical, health legislation, you had a particular paragraph or two, to remove the hearsay clause, to allow these vultures, to hire these criminals, that's what they are, many of them have criminal records, and they had to do this kind of, with Sergeant Bell Brigham, you referred to it yourself, they packed up vehicles that day in the Garda station, and that's well known, so I mean, it's time this was brought into some bit of order, as I said, overall we have had a very constructive engagement with the security charity, and they are doing their best, where significant amounts of detail, relating to the acts of violence carried out by rogue operators, and indeed some licensed operators, were put to the CEO, and of the PSA, and as I said, we found out then, that the board, we're aware that the board of the PSA, and that needs reform too, obviously, contains representatives from an assistant Garda commissioner, as well as the Minister for Education and Skills, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, so in light of that, it's highly unlikely, that the previous government minister, wasn't aware of these problems, if they were, is it like more boards that we have, and more quangos that we have, they're not doing their job, they're not really supervising, they're not doing what they're there for, we have boards, and boards, and more boards, and quangos, but are they doing their job, so I look forward to this piece of legislation, being embraced by the government, and I'll be maintaining a vigilant watch over, to ensure that you do, because the merciless receivership that's going to happen in this country, in 2021, because of you removing the Heal State clause, and because of you removing the annual protections for homeowners, and that it's going to be unleashed, and these thugs are waiting for it, so they need to be reined in. Good morning, good morning. Deputy Nolan.