Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

We have had many debates such as this in the House and this debate is timely. I thank Deputy Charles Flanagan for the opportunity to speak. On occasions like this it is useful to go back to first principles. The principle on which our criminal justice system is founded is in the personal rights of the Constitution. Article 40.3.20 states: "The State shall, in particular, by its laws protect as best it may from unjust attack and, in the case of injustice done, vindicate the life, person, good name, and property rights of every citizen". In our system, the responsibility is on the shoulders of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to ensure that this constitutional provision is provided to the citizens. We have to measure the Minister against how he has fulfilled this constitutional role.

When somebody's life is taken through murder, it is the responsibility of the criminal justice system to vindicate the rights of the victim through the work of the Garda Síochána arresting and charging the perpetrator, convicting that person and keeping him or her in prison for sufficient time to pay for the crime. That is the system under which we live but the responsibility is on the shoulders of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and he has failed in this.

Last night, Deputy Charles Flanagan named 19 individual victims who got no vindication because nobody has been convicted for their murders. There has been no conviction on gun murders in gangland Ireland in 2007, 2008 and 2009. That is not a vindication under the Constitution of the lives of citizens.

The Minister is not protecting the lives of citizens when he will not replace with equally efficient managers the senior gardaí who have retired. The Minister is not protecting the lives of citizens when the present system is still porous and 2,000 mobile telephones were recovered in Irish prisons last year and gangs continue to be directed from inside prison walls. The Minister is not doing his job when private airports all around the country still have no customs presence and when drugs, the underlying cause of the gangland murders, are freely available by all classes in society and in all communities, down to the remotest country villages.

The Minister is simply not doing his job in this regard. His response is the same as that of his predecessor, Mr. Michael McDowell, in introducing new legislation in reaction to every gangland murder, with each Bill promising to be the panacea. Before the summer recess the Minister introduced two legislative proposals, the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009. My party and I supported him in the House and in the media in bringing through that legislation and made our case against those who opposed the proposals. Yet not a single conviction has taken place and not a single case has been brought before the courts under the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009. This was the legislation that made membership of a gang and conspiracy to act with criminals criminal offences. Yet nothing has happened. I do not know whether authorisation has been provided to senior gardaí under sections 4 and 6 of the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009. If so, the results have not been produced in evidence in any court case in the seven months since the legislation was enacted. Will the Minister of State indicate how many authorisations have been issued under sections 4 and 6 of that Act?

Surveillance is the way to go. What community gardaí glean as they move through estates, even though they are very welcome and efficient, will not help to meet the challenge of gangland crime. Surveillance is vital in order that it is not just the users and minor traffickers who are themselves drug addicts who are amenable to the law. Instead we must target the criminal bosses. Unfortunately, the Minister has thus far failed pathetically in that regard. I conclude by complimenting the efforts of the Garda Síochána, particularly in my own city where they have been effective. Almost all gangland murders in Limerick have been solved and the perpetrators are in prison.

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