A NEW offence of directing or controlling a criminal gang is among a series of proposals under Government consideration to combat extreme violence and intimidation by criminal gangs.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said they included extending powers used to combat subversive organisations to deal with criminal gangs, including the use of the Special Criminal Court.

Directing or controlling a criminal gang would carry a maximum life sentence, while membership of such a gang would have a 15-year maximum sentence. He said the language of current legislation “makes it extremely difficult to prove participation in a criminal organisation” so there are intense discussions “to see whether we can make it easier to ground a prosecution”.

He was speaking as he replied to the debate on the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill which will regulate the law and the practices of the Garda Síochána, Defence Forces and Revenue Commissioners relating to the secret surveillance of suspects. Minister of State Dick Roche said there were exceptions in the legislation where surveillance could be carried out without court authorisation. “We all understand that in circumstances of exceptional urgency, it may simply not be possible to get court authorisation. Every reasonable person will accept that if there is an immediate risk of a person evading justice, committing an offence or destroying information or evidence relating to a crime, exceptional circumstances can be said to exist.”

Joe Costello (Labour, Dublin Central) said, however, that the provision for a superior officer to give approval for surveillance for up to 72 hours without recourse to an application to the District Court opened the door to abuse. He said it was “fairly difficult to imagine a situation whereby an officer would not have access to the courts over a period of 72 hours, which is three full days”.

It was “designed to provide flexibility, but the danger is this is the lazy officer’s way out and will be abused”. He also expressed concern about the “core provision” of “the admissibility of evidence which has been obtained by means of surveillance, even in circumstances where a law has been breached”.

Paul Connaughton (FG, Galway East) said “the minute we talk about bugging devices and so on, we can rest assured that the people on whom they will be used will use the same system or a more sophisticated one to block those devices”.

Jim O’Keeffe (FG, Cork South West) expressed concern that some provisions might create “a lawyers’ picnic”, with defendants’ lawyers using provisions of the Bill to have certain evidence excluded from the courts.

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh welcomed “publication of this Bill because it will move us towards compliance with our human rights obligation and provide for the related evidence to be used in court, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful prosecutions in some cases”. He also said “external espionage groups such as MI6, the CIA or even Mossad are operating in Ireland”.

The Bill now goes to committee stage.