Garda ‘belief evidence’ needed to tackle gang crimes

The first legal officer with the Criminal Assets Bureau, credited with drafting the legislation that paved the way for CAB, said legislation allowing the submission of ‘belief evidence’ from senior gardaí at trials is needed to tackle organised crime.

Barry Galvin said it was his opinion that laws similar to those introduced to tackle subversive elements during the Troubles were needed to fight organised crime, including legislation that would “bring in a regime whereby the gardaí can adequately address this by belief evidence similar to what is in the Offences Against the State Act”.

“There’s a variety of things that need to be done. Firstly, I would be very disappointed at the lack of action over a number of years in relation to enabling an Garda Síochána to do their duty properly; lack of resources, lack of motivation in terms of obstructing them, lack of legal progress to make them efficient and effective,” Mr Galvin told RTÉ News.