Last week, I raised the rise in crime rates in County Kerry in the form of a Topical Issue debate. During that debate, I also touched on the fact that elderly people are having their homes invaded and are being attacked. Very sadly, since then a man aged 94 years and his wife, who is 87, had their home invaded last Sunday. Two men attacked him. They broke his walking stick over his head. They ransacked his house and stole money. Representatives of the active retirement associations around the country have said that politicians will have to step up. I agree.

This type of behaviour from any human being should not be tolerated. I am not blaming Government or An Garda Síochána. These people are scumbags. They are the worst type of cowardly blackguards that God ever had the misfortune to create and bring into this world. They are horrible people. I know that they will not hear this because they are all thrown in a slumber somewhere sound asleep and would not be up until evening time, but if any one of them is awake I would send a message to them out of this House: they are cowards; they are horrible blackguards.

I commend the Government that was in office at the time of Veronica Guerin's death. It came in here and worked diligently - Opposition and Government together. It brought in new rules and regulations that ensured the formation of the Criminal Assets Bureau. The Taoiseach and others that were here tackled organised crime in a very diligent and workmanlike way. We, as Government and Opposition and as elected Members of Dáil Éireann, have to stand up and say that we will not tolerate this type of behaviour.

We will ensure elderly people in their homes will be safe, secure and happy in the knowledge that if any person is stupid enough to enter their homes and hurt a hair on their heads, they will be dealt with severely. I am talking about punishments such as tagging. This is not an outrageous thing to say. They should be tagged for life because people should know where they are if any person is cowardly enough to do this. Why do they not take on big strong men in their homes and see how they would come out of it? I am very supportive of what the Government did in the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2011 under which a person is entitled, and rightly so, to use reasonable force to protect their home. I would like to hear what the Taoiseach has to say about that.

The attack on Jimmy Campion at the age of 94 in Roscrea, County Tipperary and his wife, Maura, who is aged 87, was an attack of cowardice and wanton brutality. I do not know who the people who broke into that house are, the condition they were in or the state of their minds, but to do that to an elderly person is unforgivable in so many ways. Unfortunately, it is not the first time it has happened and probably will not be the last. I hope Mr. Campion is making a recovery. I note the reports of the walking stick being broken and the effect this is having on his wife, Maura, with the post-traumatic stress caused by people entering a house and beating up a man in his senior years. I saw his neighbour and colleague on television saying that he was a gentleman of the first type against whom he had played hurling so many years ago. They would not have attempted to break into the house if he had been in his younger years as a hurler. I share the Deputy's view on this matter.

It is a fact of life that we have made serious attempts to involve communities through the text alert system and Macra na Tuaithe where communities are advised to be in contact with the Garda and Garda stations when unusual happenings and these type of suspicious movements take place. The TheftStop partnership with the IFA aims to deal with the stealing of livestock and machinery. As the Deputy is aware, efforts are under way to deal with this through various technological chips and so on to prevent machinery being stolen and to ensure that if it is stolen, people will know where it is. A total of 75% of burglaries are committed by about 25% of these people. Some of those involved are professional gangs. Operation Thor, which has been funded by the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Government, has put a stop to a great deal of that because many of those professional gangs who leave particular areas to travel throughout the country in high-speed cars have had their run ended.

I hope the local gardaí in Roscrea are able to apprehend these people. It will be for the courts to punish them. The Deputy made a very clear case about how he feels they should be punished. It is simply unforgivable that a man and his wife in the comfort of their own home who expect they will be able to live their lives in peace and tranquility should have that breached by thugs who enter a house for no other reason than to beat someone up and rob money. I hope the local gardaí find these people, that they are brought before the courts and that the judge on the bench will deal with them.

I cannot agree with the Taoiseach about Operation Thor because I believe it has sent these criminals underground and into rural areas. A couple of weeks ago, 64 people were arrested in one day in Carlow and Kilkenny, but it was all in urban areas. We must be very careful about what we are doing here and how we are tackling the problem. I thank the Taoiseach for his comments but I want action. I want an end to these people being treated with kid gloves. There is free legal aid and every sort of pampering and nonsense for them. The full rigours of the law must be applied to them. Every one of us has parents or grandparents who grew older and more frail until we possibly lost them. We became more protective of them. We want to protect our elderly people. That is how we will be judged as politicians.

I ask the Taoiseach and the Government to get cross about this issue because we cannot and will not tolerate it or allow it to go on in our country. It is not right and it is not fair.

This case has been raised by many Deputies. The Criminal Justice (Burglary of Dwellings) Act 2015 was targeted at burglars with previous convictions and who are charged with multiple residential break-ins. That Act requires that the courts provide for consecutive jail sentences when a burglar is being sentenced for multiple offences. It also allows courts to refuse bail to offenders who have a previous conviction for domestic burglary.

This case involves an aggravated situation where the burglars beat up an elderly man. The criminal justice forensic evidence and DNA database system was commenced a year ago and introduced the DNA database, which provides the Garda with investigative links between people and unsolved crimes, including burglary. The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, this morning turned the sod on a new forensic laboratory in County Kildare, which will cost over €30 million.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae should not underestimate the impact of Operation Thor, which began in November 2015 at a time of straitened public finances. It led to a sharp decline in the national rate of burglary, which has been reflected in successive statistics published by the CSO. The full year figures for 2016 are the most recent available. They indicate a 30% reduction in burglary over that 12-month period.

That does not excuse what happened to the Campion couple in Roscrea. I hope that the Garda is able to apprehend the perpetrators and that they are brought before a court to be dealt with by a judge. The Deputy’s point is valid. Whether they be urban, semi-rural or what one might call really rural, communities need to be on the alert. Facilities such as the text alert scheme and so on are available that allow suspicious vehicles or people acting suspiciously to be reported in the hope that issues such as this one will not arise again or at least will be reduced. Should an incident unfortunately occur, those facilities will mean that the perpetrators can be apprehended.

I hope that Jimmy Campion makes a full recovery. I hope that the condition of his wife, Maura, improves and that they will be allowed to live their lives as a long-married couple in the peace and tranquillity of their home, which they have known for a very long time.