Gardaí may fall victim to the "murderous intentions" of criminal gangs if they do not have the necessary legislative and physical resources to deal with the threat, according to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, who introduced the Criminal Justice Bill in the Dail yesterday.
The legislation "is proportionate to the threat faced by society", he said as the Opposition criticised the lack of time given to debate the 128-page Bill.
"I am most worried that gangland criminals will turn their attention to the unarmed members of the Garda Síochána," Mr McDowell said. "This is the nightmare we all face and if we do not give the Garda the resources to deal with this issue, [ its] members may fall victim to the murderous intentions of these gangs."
The Bill includes revised bail laws, measures on electronic tagging, changes in the right to silence and sentencing. It draws on US legislation to deal with organised crime, drug trafficking and weapons offences.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe, who described the Bill as the "last political sting of a ministerial wasp", said he supported its broad principles.
But he did not "accept that the provisions of this Bill will achieve anything like the outcomes he predicts as the answer to gangland crime." His main worry "is that the haste in which this Bill was produced and the inadequate time given to debate it will produce legislation that will not be watertight. . . I am afraid that criminals will walk free because of loopholes created by this slipshod manner of introducing serious legislation."
Labour's justice spokesman Brendan Howlin said the Human Rights Commission, "which has a role to play, particularly in considering criminal justice legislation, will give its view after the closing date for amendments to this Bill.
"This is a sham and a fraud, a travesty of proper legislative procedure."
The debate continues today.
