Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I wish to confine my comments to the crime problem. While I welcome Gerry Adams's statement concerning the atrocious beating on the Border, nevertheless there is a clear link between the paramilitary tradition and the current state of gangland crime. The culture of paramilitaries and the use of lethal force, including executions, are tied in and synthesised with the drug culture. Therefore, Mr. Adams cannot abscond from all responsibility in this respect. The good news, however, is that the link between paramilitarism and crime offers us the solution. The Taoiseach began the debate the other day when he said he was thinking about using the Special Criminal Court. He was right to say no more. Surprisingly, I am not in favour of a knee-jerk reaction. I am sorry if this matter is going to be politicised because I wish it would not be. I commend Eamon Gilmore's idea that membership of a gang or association with a gang should be a crime. Eamon Gilmore is from a strong left-wing tradition in Europe. The Communist Party supported the special investigating magistrates which smashed the Mafia. The pity is that too often the left wing is ready to talk about the dangers to civil liberties rather than joining the general community in solving the crime problem first. When that is done I will listen to the civil liberties case.

The Taoiseach was right at the weekend to be censorious of civil liberties. We have a problem. Fine Gael has made some good suggestions in respect of 24 hour surveillance. The Labour Party has also made good suggestions. Fianna Fáil should not be so defensive of its Minister. We need to work together to deal with this problem. There is gangland crime in Dublin, Limerick and on the Border, and an impending problem caused by foreign gangs trafficking and committing crime here.

We need to use the Offences Against the State Act provisions which have been on the Statute Book since our war on terrorism and give the Special Criminal Court a new category of investigating or prosecuting judges. Instead of a garda relaying witnesses whom he or she believes but who do not want to go into the witness protection programme a judge would do so. An experienced judge protected by the law would say that he or she was satisfied with the witnesses' bona fides and direct that suspects be interned or locked up for 30 days. That is necessary to disrupt gangland crime in Dublin and to lift young men out of their communities in Limerick for their own sake. There is no point telling a 20 year old who is involved in a vendetta that he will go to prison. Men of that age do not care.

Kierkegaard said that most of the trouble in the world is caused by men under the age of 25. It is not possible to talk to a tearaway at that age. He needs to be lifted out of his community for his own sake. The political resonances of this are important. The Irish State, under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and coalition Governments, lifted hundreds of Republicans between the 1950s and the 1970s. Proinsias De Rossa has said that he benefited by that action. It is sometimes necessary to allow people to cool off for their own sake. It is no harm going into a good progressive prison for 30 days if one is involved in a Limerick vendetta.

Instead of giving a knee-jerk reaction we should stand back coolly from the British common law system which waits for a crime to be committed and then act. The Garda Síochána is adequately resourced. One can make political capital if one wishes to do so by putting more community gardaí on the beat but that will not deal with organised crime. A proactive policy of setting out to smash the crime gangs is needed, rather than waiting for them to commit offences. This requires four or five investigating magistrates, one apiece for the Border, Limerick, Dublin and foreign crime gangs, integrated into the Special Criminal Court. These prosecuting judges should be charged with special powers to subpoena witnesses to break the crime gangs.