Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the review of section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009. Let us be clear about what section 8 does. It provides that certain offences under Part 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 - offences specifically dealing with organised crime under sections 71(a), 72, 73 and 76 - would be regarded as scheduled offences and that, therefore, the DPP may send the offences forward to the Special Criminal Court. In fact, the section has not been used. No cases have been sent forward to trial in the Special Criminal Court in accordance with section 8 in the period under report nor indeed for the previous 12 months because I looked back at our discussion of this last year. However, there have been a number of arrests made under those sections. There has been one arrest under section 71(a), which deals with directing the activities of a criminal organisations. There have been 13 arrests under section 72, which concerns participating in or contributing to activities of a criminal organisation. There have been 15 arrests under section 73, which concerns committing an offence for a criminal organisation. Those offences were specifically introduced to deal with the very serious threat and scourge of organised crime. Others have referred to the really heinous shooting of a six-year-old child in Ballyfermot last week but there are other equally horrific incidents about which people have spoken.
It was part of a package of measures introduced in 2006 and again in 2009 but it is worthy of note that the DPP has not operated the section. An Garda Síochána and the acting Garda Commissioner have asked the Minister to keep the provisions in operation for the next 12 months. I very much welcome the fact that we will be able to review it in 12 months time because a jury trial is a fundamental right but there may be very specific incidences where we may see the sort of exceptions or the possibility of the exception being put in place even though it has not been used yet.
We all very much hope that if the threat recedes, the section will not remain in force. I wonder if Sinn Féin were in the next Government, this provision was still in force and the threat of organised crime remained, whether it would take a different view in a 12-month review of section 8 of the 2009 Act.