Minister and gardaí set for clash on war against crime

THE Minister for Justice and gardaí are set on a collision course again over proposals to crack down on organised crime.

As the fallout from the collapse of the Liam Keane murder trial continued yesterday, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) called on Michael McDowell to introduce legislation that would allow organised criminals to be prosecuted like subversives in the Special Criminal Court (SCC).

GRA general secretary PJ Stone also claimed Mr McDowell’s extra allocation of 2 million to target organised crime was “inadequate”.

Mr Stone said the gardaí required additional resources and powers to combat organised criminals. He called for a new law that would make membership of an organised crime gang an offence.

However, a Government source said last night the minister was reluctant to extend the powers of the SCC to hear organised crime cases in addition to cases which carry a threat of subverting the State. It was pointed out that all other common law jurisdictions hear such cases in jury courts.

“Mr McDowell is a passionate believer in the jury system, which he believes is a very good system,” said the source.

“To introduce, on a formal basis, a provision to hear cases involving criminal gangs in the SCC would be problematic. How, for example, would you define an organised gang?”

Facing a barrage of criticism for the second day running, the Taoiseach yesterday defended the Government’s record on crime and rejected opposition claims that its policies were not tough enough.

Mr Ahern said adequate resources and manpower had been allocated to the gardaí.

“It’s a combination of tough law, good resources and well-trained and motivated gardaí,” he said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny accused Mr Ahern of living in a fantasy land. He said a TV documentary had said 40 criminal gangs were operating in Dublin and called for an organised crime unit to be set up within the gardaí.

Last night, the Justice Department said garda figures showed a total of 17 such gangs in existence nationwide. Rejecting the call for a new unit, a spokesman also said the specialist garda units already in existence were more than adequate to handle the crime situation.

The Government has also committed itself to review the rules which render inadmissible statements made to gardaí but later disavowed in court . The Oireachtas Justice Committee will also hear proposals on the criminal justice system from legal bodies, gardaí and civil rights groups.

Meanwhile, one of the country’s leading criminal law experts said that allowing statements made to gardaí to be admissible in court could lead to grave miscarriages of justice.

According to Prof Dermot Walsh, of the University of Limerick: “You will be moving the criminal trial to a police station. Statements made to the police will become the critical point of the trial. This is not on,” he said.

“Hard cases make bad law. To fundamentally change the law on the basis of one case collapsing is wrong.”