Call for mandatory term for garda assault

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has called for mandatory sentencing for people who assault or injure gardaí following the shooting of a garda in Dublin on Wednesday night.

The garda was discharged from the Mater Hospital early yesterday after receiving gunshot wounds to a finger on his right hand.

The shooting occurred after the garda confronted armed raiders at a petrol station in Finglas at about 10.30 p.m. One of the four raiders fired two shots at the garda as he approached the rear of the premises after stepping out of his patrol car. The raiders escaped from the scene in a car which was later found burnt out in Swords.

GRA president Mr Dermot O'Donnell said the incident was one of an increasing number of attacks on gardaí in the last few weeks, adding that the onus was now on the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, "to be seen to afford serving gardaí the full protection of the law".

He said the recently-published Garavan report into health and safety conditions in the force "clearly outlined all that was wrong with the working environment of the gardaí, and how a lot more could be done to make members feel less fearful of dangerous situations. However, Michael McDowell has chosen to ignore these findings, and has not even responded to them."

A spokesman for the Minister said that Mr McDowell would examine the GRA's statement, but there were "major problems", both constitutionally and otherwise, with the notion of mandatory sentences for assaults on gardaí.

The spokesman pointed out that the murder of a garda carried a mandatory 40-year sentence, and "down the years the courts have taken that very seriously".

Under the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill 2004, mandatory sentencing will be introduced for gun crimes for the first time. A new offence of possession of a sawn-off shotgun will also be introduced.

Pressure from rank-and-file gardaí for changes in the law is evident from the latest edition of the the GRA magazine, Garda Review. An editorial in the publication cites a number of recent assaults against gardaí, including one in Dunmanway, Co Cork, where "there are approximately 1,000 people going from one nightclub to another with only one member of An Garda Síochána to police them on any given Saturday night".

"Another example can be drawn from Cork city at five o'clock in the day - when a member was hit across the head with a bottle. The list is endless and the number of members on sick leave as a result of assaults is growing at an alarming rate."