James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very good. The next question is on the detection rate. It is a source of frustration to me, as Chair of this committee, that we have not seen more arrests, investigations and prosecutions. I know there is a sequence and people do not go straight to court. Obviously, the Garda has to investigate, detect, arrest, question and charge. There is a cycle and lead time involved. However, I have heard it said many times, perhaps not by the Garda, to be fair, and it may be commentary in the media, that it is difficult to investigate these crimes and one reason is that evidence is burned. I do not fully accept that. If we take insurance fraud, for example, it is not a new thing that buildings are burned for insurance claims. That has happened for centuries. I understand there is a school of forensic investigation whose members can go to the scene of a fire and identify the seat of the fire, whether it is electrical or chemical or has been caused by a chip pan, a cigarette or smoke. It could be a farm labourer throwing overalls covered in straw into a hot press in an old rusty cupboard, which then cause spontaneous combustion. These things happen but they are also capable of being investigated using forensic engineering techniques. I understand that in the 33 incidents around Ireland that we are discussing, it is not the case that there is nothing left but charred remains on the ground. The bulk of the building is often still intact. I do not want to trivialise or simplify the issue but it strikes me that there is a way to do this. Again, without getting into operational issues, are those kinds of techniques being employed in these cases? What are the challenges?