The Government is concerned at the number of so-called tiger kidnappings and at the money getting into the hands of criminals and those trafficking drugs, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has said.
Tiger kidnappings generally involve the capture of a bank official, who is then forced to retrieve large sums of money from their institution while their family is held hostage.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Ahern confirmed there had been five such incidents this year.
Responding to a question from Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte, Mr Ahern said protocols had been put in place to deal with such kidnappings. He said the Garda does not, however, publicly disclose information regarding such protocols.
Mr Rabbitte asked for details of the number of recorded cases of so-called tiger robberies to date in 2009; the amount of money taken in such robberies and the discussions the Minister has had with the financial institutions about the robberies.
But Mr Ahern said the advice from the Garda Commissioner was that the amounts of money taken in such incidents should not be disclosed for operational reasons.
Mr Ahern said the absolute priority for gardaí was to ensure that no harm came to the victims in such incidents. With this in mind, he had arranged to meet representatives of the Irish Bank Officials’ Association and the credit unions’ staff. He said there was “grave concern” that an individual would be injured in the course of such a kidnapping and this was why he wished to seek the views of the organisations.
Mr Rabbitte noted that €7.6 million had been taken in one raid on a bank in Dublin this year. He asked “how in the name of heavens” could one employee have access to the retrieval of such an amount of money.
“My understanding was a very limited amount of that money was actually recovered,” Mr Rabbitte said.
He suggested the protocols in place were in some cases not being adhered to.
Mr Rabbitte said the “only reasonable conclusion” that could be drawn was that the robberies were being carried out for the purposes of crime and drug-trafficking into the country.
The Minister said early warning when such a kidnapping took place was “absolutely crucial”. He said the Government was extremely worried that large amounts of money were getting into criminal hands and feeding drug crime. “We have to redouble our efforts,” he said.
Mr Ahern said he did not want to comment on individual case but he acknowledged there was concern “that large amounts of money would be accessible to single individuals”.
He said: “It is a fact that this State, for whatever reason, has more cash per head of population circulating around the country.”
This had to be addressed, Mr Ahern said. He said other countries had very little cash available and that transactions were “all done on plastic”.
