Government under fire over timing of new crime bill

THE proposed new crime measures have arrived too late in the lifetime of the Government effectively to tackle gangland violence, Fine Gael claimed yesterday.

Commenting on the publication of the Criminal Justice Bill yesterday, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe said the Government’s “last ditch” attempt to introduce the legislation “smacked of desperation”.

“The last Criminal Justice Bill was thrashed out over two years, but this latest bill has been drafted in less than two months, and will be guillotined through the Oireachtas in a matter of weeks,” he said.