Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

With the permission of the House, I wish to share my time with Deputies Ó Snodaigh, Upton and Costello.

I have no doubt about Deputy Connick's sincerity when he tells the House the Government is dedicated to putting the crime bosses behind bars. Unfortunately, it has not been particularly successful up to the present. The Minister made his big play today in advance of this debate when he published the heads of the much promised covert surveillance Bill. This draft surveillance Bill has featured in all of the planted stories about this since the tragedy in Limerick, on the front page of The Irish Times and so forth. I was somewhat surprised when I looked at what the Minister had produced. His predecessor as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, when I published the Covert Surveillance Bill on behalf of the Labour Party in November 2007, said at the time it would "alert the criminals to Garda investigative techniques". He implied he was speaking on behalf of the Garda Síochána.

It would appear that the tragedy in Limerick has changed the mind of this Minister. If he shakes his head this Minister will tell me he agreed with my Bill all the time and disagreed with the then Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan.

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