Opposition scorns proposals to tackle gangland crime

FIANNA FÁIL launched its latest plan to tackle gangland crime yesterday, but the opposition immediately scorned the strategy, saying the party’s record in government had been “dismal”.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said FF would make it harder for criminals to hold onto the proceeds of crime by “isolating gang bosses from their financial empires and money-laundering operations”.

The party would do this through laws providing for:

nDivestitures, which would require convicted criminals to divest themselves of interests in “tainted enterprises”.

nTrusteeships, which would allow the courts to empower trustees to run organisations which have been infiltrated or are controlled by criminal elements.

Fianna Fáil said it would also expand the operational presence of the Criminal Assets Bureau by introducing CAB liaison officers in each Garda division.

Mr O’Dea claimed the Government’s record on crime was a successful one, pointing to statistics which measure the amount of crime against the overall size of the population.

“In 1995, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 of the population,” he said.

“In 2005, there were the equivalent of 24.6 crimes per 1,000 of the population. We have led a consistent and effective crackdown on crime.”

But Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe rubbished that claim, saying the fact was that there were more than 100,000 serious crimes each year.

“After 10 years in power, Fianna Fáil’s record on crime is dismal. Violent crime has remained consistently around 100,000 incidents a year. Fianna Fáil promised that people would feel safer in their homes. Clearly, they do not,” he said.

“Fianna Fáil has failed to stop the relentless rise of gangland crime, which has gone from strength to strength over the last 10 years. But Willie O’Dea claimed that ‘serious crime and homicide is low relative to the rest of the world’.

“He should tell that to the families of the 66 homicides last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan said it was unclear whether the IRA had brought into this jurisdiction the proceeds from its operations in Colombia.

During the first televised debate of the election campaign on Wednesday night, Tánaiste Michael McDowell claimed Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams had been a member of the IRA army council when the terrorist organisation sold “Provo military know-how” to Colombian guerrillas for $25 million.

The $25m was money the guerrillas had generated from selling cocaine, Mr McDowell said.

Asked yesterday why the Tánaiste had not pursued this if he had evidence, Mr Lenihan said it was unclear if the money had ever come into this jurisdiction. “The payment happened in Colombia,” he said.