Northern Bank raid - Crime seems to pay very well indeed

IT will be two years on Wednesday since the Northern Bank raid, the most audacious bank robbery in the history of the island, yet nobody has been brought to justice.

Three people have been charged in Northern Ireland, but none has been tried. One man was arrested in Dublin with thousands of pounds in sterling notes, but his trial has been delayed repeatedly.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell suggested that the IRA were trying to buy a bank in Bulgaria for money laundering purposes.

Making such allegations may have been intended as a means of building public confidence that the gardaí were making headway, but the tactic is counter productive, because it is more likely to contribute to the perception that the laws are so weighted in favour of criminals that gardaí are essentially hamstrung.

People used to believe that crime does not pay, but criminals getting away with vile, outrageous, and audacious crimes undermine that perception.

Nobody could now be blamed for concluding that crime pays very well, with little or no consequences for the criminals.

The current coalition came to power more than nine years ago promising a policy of zero tolerance towards crime, but there seems to be no limit to what is being tolerated in the name of justice.

In the past, authorities were particularly intent on prosecuting offenders with a higher public profile in order to demonstrate that law was enforced without fear or favour.

Many people can remember when there was little more than a premeditated murder a year, but now there is more than one a week, and last week it seemed more like a daily occurrence.

The Minister for Justice is blaming everybody — the judges for being too lenient, the gardaí for frustrating his cherished dream of a reserve garda force, and the rest of society for not embracing his perception of their responsibilities.

It is over nine years since the McCracken Tribunal concluded that former Taoiseach Charles J Haughey had perjured himself and obstructed the work of the tribunal.

He was charged with those crimes, but he was never brought to trial, because his activities were the subject of the Moriarty Tribunal.

Of course, justice should not be rushed, but there is no danger of that in the current situation, especially with the way the final publication of the Moriarty report is being dragged out.

Why wait until the findings are buried in the last minute Christmas bustle? This whole thing makes a mockery of justice.