Tough action on crime was demanded by a former minister for justice during the debate on the Fine Gael Private Members' motion critical of the Government's inaction on crime.
Addressing the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, the Limerick East FG deputy, Mr Michael Noonan, said: "There is a challenge to the criminal justice system, Minister, and it must be dealt with with an iron fist." Mr Noonan said there had been 19 gangland murders this year, 15 of them in Dublin and four in Limerick. In Limerick, citizens were afraid to be sworn into a jury, he said, adding that in one case witnesses were intimidated and five of them withdrew their evidence. In one murder case, the person who was acting on the door of a particular club was scheduled to appear in court as a witness in a minor offence. "It is widely believed by the gardaí in Limerick that he was murdered because that particular piece of evidence for a minor offence would have triggered the lifting of a suspended sentence on a serious criminal.
"The State solicitor in Limerick has had his office petrol-bombed. A junior counsel, who is a State prosecutor in Limerick, has had his house set on fire.
A State solicitor in the county has had his offices burgled and a prosecution file was taken. The intimidation in gangland Dublin, and the communities affected, is just as strong as the intimidation in Limerick." A Government amendment to the Fine Gael motion, endorsing its policy, was passed by 67 votes to 57.
