Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I do not accept that matters will be left wide open. The section only relates to expert evidence members or former members of the Garda may provide as to the existence of a gang. Such evidence will not in any way be capable of being taken as an indication that a person before the court is a member of that gang. It will be part of the overall evidence required to prove the existence of a criminal gang. Since the 2006 legislation was passed, there has been a difficulty in respect of providing proof as to the existence of criminal gangs. That difficulty also arises internationally.

In drafting this Bill and the 2006 legislation, we considered whether it might be possible to create an offence relating to the membership of gangs. Organised criminal gangs do not keep lists of their members. They are generally fluid, amorphous organisations and their membership changes constantly. It is, therefore, much easier to prove participation in a specific organised criminal act rather than prove that a person is an ongoing member of a particular criminal gang.

The experience in some of the country's difficult areas shows that a particular gentleman might be a member of one gang on one day and of another the next day. Although the gangs generally revolve around families, this is not always the case. I again ask the Deputy to understand that this section is about proof of the existence of a gang and no more than that. That is the reason that corroborative evidence, as is normally known in the context of opinion evidence tending to the guilt of a person, is always required and must be required, but not in this case.

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