Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As I stated, we will certainly look at the legislation. The Criminal Justice Act 2007, which was enacted in 2006 and came into effect last year, dealt with all the legislative measures the Garda wanted to deal with these issues. Technology keeps advancing and I will not argue with that. If there are enhancements that can be made to the technology system, they will be considered, although I know those involved in criminal activity are probably some of the best clients of the mobile phone industries because they change their phones every day. They discard them so technology cannot trace them. There is obviously new technology available and I am sure the Garda and its investigative teams are on top of it. The Government is obviously in favour of this and has provided significant resources for the Garda in this regard.

The Criminal Justice Act 2007 relates to gangland crime and makes it more difficult to get bail. It deals with people involved in drug trafficking, firearms offences or other serious crimes. It introduced tighter controls over post-release activity, enhanced penalties for those who reoffend within seven years, mandatory minimum sentences in cases of drug trafficking and firearms offences and the indefinite retention of fingerprint samples. All these fairly draconian measures are now law and available to the Garda in its activities.

An enormous number of gardaí are coming out of Templemore and the numbers have increased. We have been giving preference to the road traffic corps and have built up the number therein. There are now 800 in the corps and it is to increase to 1,200 in order to deal with the problems under its remit. Although we are aware of the ongoing difficulties in this regard, the corps has had great successes.

Obviously it is essential that Operation Anvil and other measures of the criminal justice system designed to target criminal gangs, particularly those in drug trafficking, receive the lion's share of the resources. That is the Minister's policy.

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