Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

All sections of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 are in operation. The Garda Commissioner has informed me that compiling statistics in respect of Part 4 of the Act, which deals with detentions and arrest, would require an examination of manual records and thus require a disproportionate expenditure of Garda time and resources.

The House will be aware that, prior to a renewal of the provisions dealing with the use of the Special Criminal Court, a report must be laid before the Oireachtas and said report will, in due course, contain all relevant information in this regard. However, the legislation in question was only signed into law on 23 July and it would be completely unrealistic to expect that by this stage people would have been charged, tried and convicted under it. It was precisely because there is an inevitable timelag between legislation coming into force and its yielding results that I was so anxious to have the legislation, together with that relating to surveillance, enacted before the summer recess. If this had not been done, in the past couple of months, the Garda would have been deprived of the opportunity to take action designed to lead to convictions under both items of legislation. That is exactly what the Garda has been doing.

Against the background of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act, the Garda has launched a series of operations designed to disrupt the activities of gangs and gather evidence for use under the new legislative measures. Information relating to some of those operations, which involved raids and searches, are in the public domain. However, it would clearly be counterproductive to give details in respect of surveillance operations. The House will understand that it is not helpful to offer a running detailed public commentary on action that the Garda is taking against specific gangs. What I can say publicly is that I know that An Garda Síochána is determined to use to the full the measures, which the Oireachtas passed just prior to the summer recess, to support it in its efforts to counteract the activities of these gangs.

See this speech in context