Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I am speaking specifically on amendment No. 3. We have excellent garda detectives on the ground in Limerick who do fantastic work. We must ensure this section of the Bill is constitutional. Fine Gael proposes that the expert evidence of a Garda superintendent to the Special Criminal Court should be put forward in cases of gangland crime. We need to get immediate convictions and ensure that Roy Collins, Shane Geoghegan and Brian Fitzgerald will be remembered. We must ensure that we can deal with gangland crime in an effective fashion and stop senseless murders and such heinous crimes ever happening again. Fine Gael supports this legislation but we want to ensure that when it comes into operation within the legal and courts system, it will be effective. In that context the expert evidence of a Garda chief superintendent to the Special Criminal Court would be the most effective in ensuring convictions for gangland crime and for the direction of and involvement in gangland crime in Limerick.

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