Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The other response related to gangland crime. Another element of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act was not only the targeting of the person who pulled the trigger, seeing as how some old eejit was sent out on the mission more times than not, but the targeting of those behind the trigger, those who put the eejit up to it. Of everything the Oireachtas could have done, we decided to take the organisers of the murders off the streets. They need not necessarily be anywhere near the commission of an offence. I did not get great support from either side of the House. Fine Gael supported the provision, but it wanted me to leave the legislation until after the summer. I believed correctly that it was important-----

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