Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I do not wish to take up too much of the precious time that we have to debate this Bill but I have the same questions as Deputy Charles Flanagan. I hope that we will receive answers because I considered this at length but I am not sure that I can see the difference. Is the nuanced difference being imported into this Bill because the previous definition did not work? Has this section never been resorted to in order to put gangleaders behind bars and will the minimal changes made here transform that picture?

One of the big difficulties, which has been accelerating since the former Deputy Michael McDowell became Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is that we have had criminal justice Bill after criminal justice Bill and yet whole sections of legislation have never been used. It is puzzling to hear Government Deputies and the Minister himself, on occasion, suggesting that the reason thugs and crime bosses are on our streets is a gap in the law or a shortage of legislation. To the rest of us it is about a gap in enforcement, for whatever reason, such as the resourcing of the Garda Síochána in electronic tools etc.

I find it difficult to determine the difference between this and what we did in the 2006 Bill. How will this work when the Minister has not bothered to invoke the 2006 Act in this regard?

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