Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Again, there is no change of heart with regard to any of those matters. What we are examining more intensely is the issue of directing a criminal organisation, which is not covered in existing legislation, and to mirror, in effect, the offences that were introduced after 1998 and the Omagh bombing. That is what we propose to do. There has been a ratcheting up of attacks on and intimidation of people, particularly in the Limerick area, and we must respond to that. Obviously, it is an evolving situation.

The Taoiseach and I, in the aftermath of the Shane Geoghegan killing, were referring to the issue of opinion evidence. While members of the Deputy's party were proposing, quite rightly, that this should be used, I asked the Attorney General to examine the issue again. It had previously been examined in 2006 by the previous Attorney General. The current Attorney General confirmed the view that the courts use opinion evidence very sparingly and require significant corroborative evidence. Hopefully, the passing of the proposed legislation before the summer recess, which I expect the Opposition to facilitate, would be an important tool in adding to that corroborative evidence in the context of opinion evidence subsequently used.

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