GARDA COMMISSIONER Fachtna Murphy has welcomed moves to introduce legislation allowing the force to gather evidence on gangland crime using covert surveillance operations.
Mr Murphy told the Oireachtas Committee on Public Accounts yesterday he wanted "statutory support" for the evidence obtained by his officers during surveillance. He said he welcomed moves by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern in this direction, as they would give gardaí an extra tool in their fight against crime.
Otherwise, a "plethora" of legislation in recent years had given gardaí the means to tackle crime, he said. The problem was that in many cases it wasn't possible to get the level of evidence needed to push a case "across the line" in the courts, mainly because of witness fears and intimidation.
Appealing once again for people with evidence of crime to come forward, Mr Murphy said he had ample funds to provide security under the witness protection programme. However, there were cultural issues involved in getting people to leave the area where they lived and move elsewhere.
With the Department of Justice, he was reviewing legislation on the licensing of handguns; this follows the disclosure of figures showing that 1,800 handguns have been licensed in recent years, with large variations in the numbers licensed in different regions.
He said existing legislation was being examined to see whether it gave the commissioner authority to issue guidelines to regional superintendents with responsibility for gun licences. On the one hand gardaí were licensing Glock pistols, while other gardaí were seizing these guns from criminals.
Some 860 firearms were seized last year, he pointed out, and some of these were licensed guns which were stolen. Criminals were driving around looking for houses with gundogs and then robbing them in the knowledge that guns were inside.
Mr Murphy said that as a result of Budget cutbacks, Garda overtime would be cut next year from €108 million to €80 million. Some non-core activities would have to be cut or deferred but he hoped frontline policing would not be affected. Up to 10 per cent of gardaí were in court on any particular day, he told Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O'Brien.
Overtime and subsistence costs for policing the Shell terminal and pipeline in Rossport, Co Mayo, has reached €11.1 million, he told the committee. Up to 250 officers were assigned to the area during days of protest on the issue, and up to 150 would be deployed daily next year as the pipeline was laid.
The meeting also heard that hundreds of newly purchased Garda vehicles lay unused for over a year because they were all purchased at the same time and could not be fitted out any quicker.
Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley said the purchase of 726 vehicles, which were delivered in December 2006, was a radical departure from normal practice and the result of the availability of money through a supplemental vote of €17 million that month. It was clear the gardaí felt the money would have to be surrendered if it was not spent.
Mr Murphy said the number of vehicles purchased was skewed towards the last quarter of 2006 because the funds were not confirmed until the second half of the year.
Some 300 civilians had been employed by the Garda in each of the past two years, leaving the ratio of civilians to gardaí at 1:7. Mr Murphy said he would like to see this ratio drop to 1:3 or 1:4, as in other countries.
The annual intake of trainee gardaí is set from the current level of 275 a quarter to 100 next year. The overall strength of the force is projected to rise to a historic high of 14,950 by the end of next year before declining thereafter.
