Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

THE ACTIVITIES of criminal gangs within our society are a cause of justifiable public concern and anger. The Government has adopted a two-pronged approach in response. First it announced the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill which proposes to allow evidence obtained by covert surveillance to be used in court. And earlier this week it set out the terms of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill which provides for the creation of new “scheduled offences” – linked to gang activity – to be tried in the Special Criminal Court.

These changes supplement the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, which makes it an offence to belong to a gang and the Criminal Justice Act 2007 which provides for mandatory sentences for a range of firearms offences. Both pieces of legislation were presented at the time of their enactment as the answer to the problem of organised crime.