Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

It is not a question of anyone expecting a 100% success rate. There is not even a 20% success rate. The Minister referred to what people like myself and the Opposition say, but this Opposition has been remarkably temperate and moderate in this criminal justice environment. I am in the House long enough to remember what went on while the Minister's party was on this side of the House, a time when the situation was far less grave than it is now. Young gangsters are running around my part of Dublin shooting people because they do not like them. I accept the Minister's comments to the effect that the Garda has an extremely difficult task on hand, but it must be a matter of concern that we have secured 23 convictions over a decade in which there have been 182 gun murders.

The Minister tries to keep his fingerprints off stories planted in the media, but he and Deputy O'Dea were responsible for putting abroad the view that, if we only signed the July legislation, it would not be back from Áras an Uachtaráin before a number of leaders of the criminal fraternity would be arraigned before the juryless courts. We have not had a single such case. The Minister referred to July of this year, but he meant July of last year because we have not reached July of this year. The Act was passed last July and we are now at the end of March, but there has not been a single case. The Minister is jibing at the Opposition, but we have been remarkably responsible and temperate in our response, given what is occurring on the streets of this city, other cities and towns.

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