The Cabinet has approved legislation granting the gardaí new powers which will allow them to break into criminals' houses, plant audio and visual bugging devices and use the material gathered to prosecute gang members in court.
Speaking today, the Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea said the covert surveillance legislation was approved by the Cabinet earlier this week.
He said: “There are a few things the attorney general has to sign off on yet but it is at a very advanced stage.”
The measures contained in the Covert Surveillance Bill were promised by the Government in the wake of the murder of Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last November.
Mr O’Dea said the new measures would be “a powerful weapon in the arsenal of the gardaí.”
Speaking after the murder yesterday of 35-year-old father of two Roy Collins in Limerick he said “the climate of fear and intimidation” in the city “has to be seen to be experienced”.
The Minister said that although he has faith in the gardaí catching the perpetrators of murders in the city the people behind the scenes giving the orders are “the people who must now be targeted”.
He said the Government hopes the new legislation will act as corroboration to enable gardaí “to put those people away”.
Under the new provisions, gardaí can apply to the courts to plant bugging devices for three months. In emergency cases a device can be planted on the permission of a chief superintendent. In those cases, the device can only be used for 14 days. The emergency provision will only be used if gardaí believe a criminal is about to abscond, destroy evidence or intimidate a witness.
Devices can only be used in the investigation of arrestable offences carrying jail terms of five years or more.
All cases will be reviewed annually by a High Court judge, who will prepare an annual report for the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach can exclude sensitive cases from the judge's report before publication.
When covert evidence is presented in court, a Garda witness will not be obliged to disclose the methods surrounding the planting of a device.