Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

The first and most serious question that arises is whether the Minister accepts we have a major problem with gangland crime. Everything else flows from that. We have a very serious problem and all the figures point to that. There were 75 murders with guns between 1998 and 2004. Of those 75 murders only 53 convictions have been secured. That indicates a very serious problem. Things are even worse if one compares the fact that in 1998 there were only four murders with guns and the figure went up to 20 in 2003. As the Minister stated, there have been 19 murders with guns already this year. Does he accept that measures are necessary at two ends, one from the point of view of the Garda?

I am glad a suggestion I have made a number of times about having a gangland crime unit has been taken on board. That will be a help. The Minister's hands are tied to a degree because regardless of the statistical gymnastics that goes on, the gardaí simply are not there. According to a reply to a question last week, there are 12,309 gardaí. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, stated last week that there will not be 14,000 gardaí until 2008. That will not solve the current problem in Firhouse, Clontarf and elsewhere. Can anything further be done with the resources that are available at present?

Second, the proposed Criminal Justice Bill is trundling on with a series of add-ons. It is a long-playing record at this stage. It was circulated a year and a half ago and we have had several announcements of new additions to it. I am interested in one provision, making membership of an armed gang a criminal offence. Could that be abstracted out and put through the Dáil straight away? I can guarantee the support of Fine Gael for such a proposal. With the low rate of convictions it is clear that many of the people committing these murders are still on the streets but if the necessary proof were there to secure a conviction under the provision to which I referred, these people could be taken out of circulation.

I suggest very strongly to the Minister that, rather than having this saga of the Criminal Justice Bill continue, we put in place this provision and start taking these people off the streets on the basis of offences for which they can be convicted? We have not even had the Minister's amendments yet. The Bill has already rolled on for a year and a half and even with the best of co-operation from the Opposition it will not be law for some time to come.

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