Who really wants these extra powers?

THE proposed Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Bill 2002 outlaws crimes of terror, no doubt with praiseworthy aims.

However, there is a balance to be struck here. Every increase in the power of the gardaí means a diminution of the freedom of the individual.

Paul O’Mahony, in ‘Criminal Chaos’ (Round Hall, 1996), speaks of “repression by stealth,”and says that the police state is not a remote fantasy. He says that, on the contrary, it is only kept at bay by “the effectiveness of our laws in upholding individual human rights.”