Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

While I have not tabled any amendments to this Part, I acknowledge that this is a difficult area. Legislating for the area is one matter, but a set of concrete results is another.

We must address the issue of organised crime in a way that we did not previously. While the Minister has rightly said that normal detective work, police investigation and gathering of evidence will be the mainstay of any anti-criminal activity, we must think outside the box. It is clear that organised crime inasmuch as the drugs industry is concerned has become a billion euro industry in this State. It is a multinational industry that links serious criminals resident abroad, drug cartels resident in drug producing countries and current or former paramilitaries who were engaged in nefarious activities and have since turned into pure criminals.

We need instruments on a transnational basis to deal with these matters, which is not simple to do. We need to fit them into our constitutional requirements. I fully accept the Minister's view, as my legal advice is that the purpose in question is met by the instrument before the House. No more than the Minister do I pretend that this is a great panacea to beat organised crime or smash the operations of those resident in the Netherlands or Spain who deal with Columbia or elsewhere to import drugs into Ireland, but it gives us a starting point, a structural framework to signal good intent.

I agree with Deputy Jim O'Keeffe in that we need to consider and learn from other jurisdictions that have greater experience of dealing with organised crime. A new and valuable resource in that is the new inspector general of the Garda Síochána appointed by the Minister who brings a wealth of experience and wisdom that could help us, not only in reforming how the Garda operates, but possibly in instructing us on how the law could be better shaped to meet the purposes of Ireland's changed environment.

I wanted to make these general points because, at another time, I might be minded to readily agree with the thoughtful and proper views expressed by my colleagues in the Sinn Féin and Green parties, but there are large issues for the State to deal with and we have a responsibility to deal with them as best we can. I commend the Minister and his officials for making an honest effort to shape an international framework of law, transpose it into domestic legislation and set about dealing with organised crime, which is a significant developing scourge that goes beyond the relevant current instruments. We need to be vigilant to discover what best practice exists elsewhere, whether it be the Canadian or the US model, which we can utilise to smash criminal conspiracies of this sort. I do not believe the babysitter will be apprehended but fear that nobody will be caught on the basis of this framework. There may be an odd occasion when a kind of supergrass emerges to blow the cover of a criminal conspiracy and we must have the structures to ensure that can happen.

I will also enter the caveat that supergrass evidence alone is an insubstantial measure on which to build an entire case. It must be augmented by hard evidence but it is not a bad starting point. Even the fear of a structure that can expose gangs will put additional pressure on organised crime and would be welcome.

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