John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion on the Criminal Justice Bill. The amendments proposed by the Minister are an appropriate legislative response to the issues that have been raised by Members on both sides of the House recently.

I agree with Deputy Crawford's final comment that he would like adequate time to be provided for all the amendments to be dealt with in the committee. It is important such time is made available. I was involved in the Select Committee on Education and Science where we were required to deal with in excess of 500 amendments and time was found to deal with them in full. I think the Deputies opposite will agree that was the case. I would not support the use of the guillotine in this case and, if necessary, extra time should be provided for late sittings because this is significant legislation and the amendments put forward by the Minister are far-reaching and cover a wide area.

As Deputy Crawford stated, if the legislation is to stand up in the courts the amendments need to be given proper scrutiny in the committee. I urge the Minister to make provision for that and to be prepared to spend the necessary time on Committee Stage. That is most important, particularly in light of the number of amendments in comparison with the proposed legislation as originally devised. Some Members have argued that it would have been preferable to introduce new legislation instead of making changes by way of amendment to cover some elements of the Bill, but that is not what has been decided.

I agree with Deputy Hayes's emphasis on the fact that we need more gardaí. There is a record number of gardaí and that number will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. One only has to look at the number of recruits currently in training in Templemore for evidence of this.

The proposed legislation and the amendments are far-reaching. They include the issues of dealing with firearms, a gun amnesty, a new offence of participating in or contributing to criminal activity, the updating of laws relating to drug offences, a new offence of importing drugs to the value of more than €13,000, a new offence of supplying drugs, a drugs offenders' register, a new offence of supplying drugs to prisons. The Bill also deals with the issue of anti-social behaviour orders and makes provision for the protection of staff in accident and emergency units and other medical officers. A variety of provisions in the original legislation are also relevant such as provisions dealing with warrants and periods of detention, collection of evidence and the protection of crime scenes.

Operation Anvil has been up and running for ten months. It started in the Dublin metropolitan region in May 2005 with a view to addressing the serious problems of gun crime, robberies, burglaries and to combat the emerging gun culture. Operation Anvil is to be extended outside the Dublin metropolitan region during 2006. The Minister obtained funding to enable Operation Anvil to continue as long as it is deemed necessary in operational policing terms. All operational personnel in the Dublin metropolitan region may be employed in Operation Anvil as the need arises. Personnel from the national Garda units are also deployed on the operation as appropriate. To date, 31 people have been arrested on the charge of murder, 440 persons for serious assaults, 414 for offences relating to robbery and 907 for burglary offences. A total of 8,300 drugs searches have been carried out, 873 searches for theft offences and 776 for firearms. More than 26,000 checkpoints were set up and a total of seizures include 374 firearms and 3,934 vehicles. This is a brief summary of Operation Anvil.

It would be fair and accurate to say that some of those results would probably have been achieved by the Garda Síochána even without the benefit of Operation Anvil. However, it has acted as a preventative measure as a result of the number of checkpoints established which have also led to detection.

My constituency has in recent times seen a significant rise in drugs and gangland-related crimes. A drive-by shooting occurred last weekend on the M50 and N4 and there have been a number of murders by means of shootings.

People in my constituency are scared because those alleged to be involved in crime might be in the area. Innocent people are afraid of what could happen to them by association. The Minister stated last night that the headline figure is decreasing in relation to the population. However, gangland and organised crime and drug-related gangland crime are on the increase.

I remind the House of what happened ten years ago about half a mile from my house. It was 26 June 1996, the day Veronica Guerin was murdered. In response to her murder, the Garda Síochána established a thorough and detailed investigation over an extended period and its results were far-reaching. Many serious players in drugs and gangland crime were arrested and imprisoned and some of them fled the country. The operation was extremely successful. The Garda Síochána demonstrated its capacity to deal with this type of organised gangland crime when it was resourced and tasked to do so.

I compare the achievements of Operation Anvil with the investigation into the Veronica Guerin case. The people involved in gangland crime today, those involved in shootings and being shot, are in their 20s. They have filled the void created by the success of the investigation into the murder of Veronica Guerin. It is time for a new operation to deal with gangland crime over and above what is offered by Operation Anvil which has now been rolled out on a national level. However, it is time the Garda Síochána was resourced to target those who are profiting from and organising crime. The same commitment and enthusiasm must be shown and it requires an effort from all of us. This is the only way to tackle the growing problem of gangland crime.

This will require commitment and leadership from the Minister and the delivery must start with him. He will require the backing of the Government and it requires committed implementation by gardaí. The Garda Síochána has demonstrated its capacity to deliver when it is resourced and tasked to do so and this was shown in the investigation of Veronica Guerin's murder.

Gangland crime is a growing problem. Gangland and related drugs crime is not just confined to criminals murdering each other; it filters down through every level of society and we need to deal with it at the top. The people involved have no respect or regard for human life, no regard for property, no regard for anything. It is time we initiated a new operation above and beyond what is envisaged in Operation Anvil and I am sorry the Minister is not in the House to hear this. We do not have a crisis that is out of control but gangland crime is growing and we need to tackle it with something more than what is envisaged in Operation Anvil.

I asked the Minister a year ago whether it would be possible to include a provision for a gun amnesty in the Bill. I am pleased to see this proposal will be included. Some people may argue that those involved in serious crime will not avail of such an amnesty but a gun amnesty is an important first step.

A gun amnesty in the UK some years ago resulted in the return of 43,000 guns and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition. Those in possession of illegal firearms must be afforded the opportunity to get rid of them if we are to introduce serious and tough legislation and tough mandatory sentencing.

I refer to a recent gun amnesty in Ottawa where a collection service was organised by the local police force for all sorts of reasons. The police collected more than half the total number of guns.

The challenge is to reduce the number of guns on the streets and to reduce easy access to them. The mandatory sentencing accompanying this legislation is absolutely critical.

I listened to Deputy Deasy who stated that mandatory sentencing was not tight enough and he was concerned that judges would have too much leeway. If this is the case it is a detail to be dealt with on Committee Stage and cannot be left as it is. If we are to rid the streets of guns, we must have tough, mandatory sentencing so that those using, holding and supplying guns are held accountable. In Ottawa, which is an interesting case, a type of reward system was set up to encourage people with information on illegal firearms to report it. If we intend to have a gun amnesty, it must be accompanied by mandatory sentencing and a proper awareness campaign to make people aware that guns cannot be kept.

The Minister proposes significant updates to the laws relating to drug offences. They include changes to strengthen the provisions on the ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for drug trafficking, which came into being through the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 and the Criminal Justice Act 1999. There is widespread concern that those caught in possession of significant amounts of drugs are not serving the minimum mandatory sentence of ten years. It is important that clarity is brought to this issue. The Minister indicated this clarity in his proposed amendments which will be discussed in detail on Committee Stage. If it is the desire of the House that we have tough mandatory sentencing, it is for the Judiciary to be directed accordingly and for the guidelines to be strict and detailed. I hope this will emerge as a result of Committee Stage.

Those who have an interest in law will be aware of the following issue which was brought to my attention and which the Minister is addressing. Several people have been murdered in cold blood in my area. If a murder victim were to be shot dead and a person were to be arrested, that person would normally be arrested under the Offences Against the State Act and could be held for a period of 24 hours, with an extension of 24 hours sanctioned by a Garda superintendent and a further 24 hours sanctioned by the courts. However, if the murder victim were stabbed to death, the person arrested would be charged under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. The period of detention in this case would be merely six hours and a further six hours sanctioned by a Garda superintendent, with no possibility of extension. In both types of case a murder would have been committed but the realistic prospects of the Garda Síochána solving the crime of murder committed through a stabbing, beating or otherwise would be greatly diminished.

The Garda Síochána must be afforded reasonable opportunities in this regard. I welcome the fact that these issues are being addressed in the Bill and the proposed amendments, specifically those dealing with securing evidence and securing the scene of the crime. These measures will help gardaí to secure convictions in the many cases where they are aware of the perpetrators but find it difficult to get the type of evidence they need promptly.

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