Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I assure Deputy Neville of that. In the past number of years, Limerick has been blanketed with gardaí. As I said earlier, there are more gardaí in Limerick per head of population than anywhere else in the country, except, perhaps, Dublin. The legislation on covert surveillance will be brought in as soon as possible, but it is very complex and that is probably why it has not been brought in previously. To a certain extent, it may tie the hands of gardaí when we put it in on a statutory footing. It is trying to balance the issue of privacy, which is enshrined in our Constitution, and allowing the gardaí a hand — I will not say a free hand — to fight crime. If we put it on a statutory footing, it may restrict gardaí to a certain extent in terms of what they can do. It will give gardaí no more powers than they have at present, but will put on a statutory footing their ability to go into private property, install bugging devices, use them and perhaps, if they so require, use them in evidence. From a policing point of view, gardaí are more than happy with their current ability. However, we have conventions on human rights with which we must comply and that is what the legislation will be about.

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