FEWER than one-in-100 people who applied to join the Garda Reserve last year were accepted as part-time members of the force.

MORE than 6,000 people have been arrested and 640 firearms confiscated as part of a major crackdown on organised crime.

MIDDLE-RANKING gardaí yesterday backed Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s controversial crime bill.

The public should welcome the installation of CCTV systems in 17 more areas around the country — in towns as widespread as Drogheda, Sligo, Kinsale, Dungarvan, Athlone, and Clonmel.

CONCERNS over the direct link between cocaine and violence in local communities will be heightened by a major new report showing that the killer drug is destroying lives in all sections of Irish society.

GARDAÍ made their first arrests yesterday in relation to a double murder when a young plumber was shot dead during the assassination of crime boss Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland last year.

SENIOR gardaí have strongly backed antisocial behaviour orders, Asbos, saying there was a “definite need” for them.

UP to 40% of companies have fired employees for cyber crime, a survey involving gardaí revealed yesterday.

WORKERS in the cash-in-transit industry are meeting tomorrow to discuss their response to the rise in so-called tiger kidnappings.

THE Irish Examiner published an article by Senan Hogan under the heading “Garda’s widow backs inquiry into first officer killed in Troubles” (January 6).

UP TO €3 million will be spent on hiring aircraft to deport illegal immigrants from Ireland over the next two years.

RELATIONS between the judicial and legislative arms of State have reached a low ebb following yesterday’s broadside from the Court of Criminal Appeal in response to Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s recent allegation that judges were soft on crime.

SENIOR gardaí yesterday demanded the functions of the Special Criminal Court are extended to tackle “extreme gangland crime”.

The blunt remarks directed at the judiciary by Justice Minister Michael McDowell in relation to “soft judges” on bail, and the sentences handed down to drug dealers, reflects the public frustration at this week’s events.

After five-and-a-half years the Competition Authority has produced a report which basically said that the legal profession is in need of fundamental reform, a fact which is neither surprising nor illuminating.

THE violent scenes from Co Mayo last Friday were reminiscent of the worst excesses of the RUC towards peaceful civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s.

IN a high-profile spat some months ago, Justice Minister Michael McDowell described Richard Bruton as “the Dr Goebbels of Irish politics” because of what he claimed was a deliberate attempt to massage garda deployment figures to suit his own agenda.

ONE of the key players in the Irish drugs racket has been arrested in the Netherlands and will face serious charges for drugs and weapons possession in the coming days.

ANY lingering doubts about the draconian nature of Ireland’s proposed new privacy laws have been scotched as media groups from 20 European countries oppose Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s repressive legislation.

It is looking increasingly likely that Justice Minister Michael McDowell will win the leadership of the Progressive Democrat Party unopposed.

THE Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy yesterday criticised National Irish Bank (NIB) for failing to inform gardaí about this week’s hostage drama.

A garda manhunt continues tonight for an armed gang who held a male bank worker’s family hostage in a field before forcing him to deliver them cash.

THE deaths of two prisoners in Mountjoy within 12 hours should help shake Justice Minister Michael McDowell out of his complacency, Labour’s justice spokesperson Brendan Howlin said last night.

IN light of the unrelenting savaging which the Garda Siochána received from the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption, any assurance from Justice Minister Michael McDowell that there would be no toleration of such appalling behaviour is worthless.

COMMUNITIES are to be given a say in the policing of their own towns and neighbourhoods with the setting up of the first Joint Policing Committees (JPCs).

A 26-YEAR-OLD who drank 12 or 13 pints of cider said he head-butted 14-year-old Brian Rossiter, kicked him in the head and gave him an upper cut into the jaw, all because he made a comment about his brother.

A new-look Probation Service today promised a new approach to rehabilitating criminals into society.

MAJOR criminal justice legislation will be rushed through the Dáil this summer in response to the latest handgun murder in Dublin, the 13th involving firearms this year.

THERE is a strong whiff of knee-jerk political reaction about the Government’s response to the crime crisis gripping the country.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell tonight admitted neither the Attorney General nor officials in his Department were made aware the unprecedented Supreme Court challenge on the statutory rape law was being taken.

THREE reports on garda corruption in Donegal compiled by the Morris Tribunal were handed to Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday.

Three separate reports on garda corruption in Donegal compiled by the Morris Tribunal were today handed to Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

The threat by rank-and-file gardaí to target Government TDs in marginal constituencies over the proposed Garda reserve is a grave error, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said tonight.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny must confirm whether proposals by a General Election candidate to legalise heroin or medical tests for returning missionaries are party policy, it was claimed today.

THE relentless political battle to restore devolved power-sharing government in the North has received a welcome boost in the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) that depicts a highly encouraging picture of how the paramilitary landscape there is changing.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell is due to meet SIPTU officials today to discuss security for the drivers of cash-in-transit vans.

COUPLES with joint incomes of €100,000 or less will pay tax at the standard rate of 20% under tax-cutting proposals unveiled by the Progressive Democrats yesterday.

Gardaí should carry cameras with them to take photographs of suspects as well as their names and addresses, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said today.

The sharp increase in the murder rate for the first three months of this year is very disturbing, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said today.

A senior garda officer was today appointed to re-examine the investigation into the murder of a Dundalk forestry worker 30 years ago.

The general public may turn on the Gardaí if a reserve force is not welcomed, Justice Minister Michael McDowell warned tonight.

A man is in a serious but stable condition in Dublin’s Mater Hospital today after being wounded in the second shooting to occur in the capital in 24 hours.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell was today accused of blaming everybody but himself for the crime rate, following the latest murder on Dublin’s streets.