Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Anyway, the Minister has published a Bill and it is entirely ambiguous, because all it appears to do is put on a statutory footing the existing powers of the Garda Síochána with regard to surveillance. Only in exceptional circumstances may gardaí use this evidence in court. Now that is really a three card trick, which does not advance us one whit. If this is the Minister's big legislative shot against the crime bosses, they will not be too concerned. The Garda Commissioner has gone out of his way to tell us he exercises these powers now, and the only difference is that he will have the legal cover to do so. However, such evidence may not, except in exceptional circumstances, be used in court, so I do not think too much of that.

The Minister said that he and two previous Governments had done the devil and all. He stated: "Many of the reforms are targeted at the fight against gangland crime. The criminal justice acts of 2006 and 2007, in particular, introduced wide-ranging initiatives to strengthen the capacity of the Garda to tackle serious crime". Well, it may have introduced them, but what——

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