Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. I agree with most of what Senator O'Malley said. These thugs will have to be tackled head-on and the full rigours of the law must be put in place to tackle them. The gangland criminals are not just a threat to communities but also to the State and the institutions of the State. They must be treated accordingly.

I attended part of the Garda Representative Association conference in Killarney this week. I was heartened to hear the Garda Commissioner state that the Garda is to launch a new series of initiatives to tackle the murdering thugs in Limerick. That is to be welcomed. The Commissioner also stated that gardaí in Limerick are also being intimidated. One wonders what the country is coming to when gardaí are being intimidated. The Commissioner said they would not be deterred from doing their duty and that although these thugs are prepared to take on the State, the State will prevail eventually. In the meantime, however, communities are being torn asunder by these criminals, thugs and murderers.

As has been mentioned by a number of speakers, the threats to Stephen Collins less than two weeks after his son, Roy, had been shot dead are absolutely despicable. People throughout the country would compliment the man but they wonder what we can do. We should be doing more to protect such people and communities. That is the situation in Limerick. On the radio recently I heard about the ongoing situation in Dolphin House. The community was meeting to discuss anti-social behaviour and the serious damage that has been done to many cars in the area. In the course of the meeting there was a bomb scare, and a pipe bomb had to be defused. This type of incident is happening mainly in Limerick and Dublin but it is happening on a lesser scale in other counties. People are being threatened and intimidated.

Drugs are behind the situation in Dolphin House. It is understood there are four or five major criminals there and they have 15 to 20 runners. They intimidate people. Gardaí are present but when they go away the community is left with the problem. We must have regard for those people and make the punishment fit the crimes.

Senator O'Malley said that gangland crime should really be classified as organised crime. In its programme for Government the Government committed to taking two actions to tackle organised crime. The first is to introduce divestitures, which would require defendants to divest themselves of interests in tainted enterprises, impose restrictions on the future activities and investments of an individual, and order the dissolution or re-organisation of any enterprise. The second is a commitment to introduce trusteeships which would allow the courts to empower trustees to run organisations where they are infiltrated or controlled by criminal elements. There has been no progress whatsoever on both points.

Fine Gael welcomes the publication of the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill. We urge that it be implemented immediately. We have been calling for such a Bill for some time and we will certainly support its provisions, which we hope will make inroads into tackling gangland criminals. The conviction rate of just 12% in the 171 shootings that have taken place in the last 11 years emphasises the need for an urgent overhaul of the law. Covert surveillance legislation is essential in the fight against organised crime. The gardaí currently monitor criminals under targeted operations such as Operation Anvil but they cannot rely on the material they gather in a criminal trial. The Minister of State will agree that is an unsustainable position. We welcome the Minister's commitment to address the problem but we hope it is acted upon as a matter of urgency.

The Garda Reserve was mentioned. Currently, there are 322 reserve gardaí in place. That is slow progress, given that the initial target in March 2006 was that we would have the full strength of 4,000, with 900 in place by September 2006. Those targets have not been met and at this stage the Minister should forget about the Garda Reserve. It is not playing any part in the prevention of crime and helping gardaí. We need more gardaí rather than people in the Garda Reserve.

The witness protection programme was mentioned by a number of speakers. I do not know how effective the programme is but the Garda Commissioner conceded it was difficult to ask people to give evidence and relocate abroad. The former Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, said many people are simply too scared to give evidence against members of armed drug gangs and in recent weeks the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, expressed his doubts about the programme, saying it was of limited use in tackling gangland crime because the demands on people entering it were fairly drastic. That comes back to the point Senator O'Malley made that if juries have to be taken out of the equation and we have to have special criminal courts without juries, let us do it. Whatever is necessary must be done to tackle crime of this nature.

Fine Gael has been calling for legislation to be expedited for the introduction of a DNA database for some time. The heads of the criminal justice (forensic sampling and evidence) Bill 2007 have been published but I understand the legislation has not been drafted yet. That Bill provides for a central database of DNA samples. DNA collection would be mandatory for suspects and people convicted of a crime and would be voluntary in the case of mass screenings. I am aware the Irish Human Rights Commission of Ireland has raised some concerns about the DNA database and called for further safeguards to be introduced when the Bill is published but those fears can be acted upon. When will that legislation come before the House because it is another tool in tackling organised crime and should be put in place as a matter of urgency?

The myriad of loopholes at ports and small private airports must be addressed also. Currently, they are subject only to random, if not rare, customs visits and searches.

I could speak for much longer on this issue but we must act on behalf of the people in communities. They are depending on us to put the legislation in place but when the legislation is in place we want it acted upon to protect ordinary decent people in communities throughout the country.