Criminal profilers now in every Garda division

Crime:An expert criminal profiler is now in place in each Garda division in the State, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea told the ardfheis as he deflected calls for the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) to be localised.

Galway East delegates proposed that the bureau be expanded to include a local bureau in each of the 25 divisions. Mr O'Dea said he accepted the principle. He added, however, that local bureaus were not necessarily the best option, but that a Garda criminal profiler was now in place in each of the divisions.

Mr O'Dea also pledged that a proportion of the 2,000 extra gardaí announced by the Taoiseach would be assigned to community policing.

The Minister told reporters that community policing projects in the last 12 months "in certain housing estates in Limerick are having an actual real effect".

People were aware of extra gardaí on the street and it was having a positive, visible impact. Mr O'Dea also told the ardfheis that this year 275 fully trained gardaí would graduate every 90 days and that was a net increase in the force of three gardaí a day. He added that as of 2006, the combined strength of both trained gardaí and recruits still in training was 14,068.

The ardfheis also unanimously backed a motion calling for longer prison terms for people convicted of sex-trafficking .

Party delegate Seán O'Reilly from Leitrim stated that in modern Ireland "children of a young age and young women in particular are held in states of slavery". They were being held in states of abject poverty and given Ireland's own history "we have a duty to them" to look after them.

He demanded that there should be lengthy sentences for those involved in trafficking women into Ireland for slavery.

Mr O'Dea said the Cabinet has approved legislation to deal with this offence and the Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Offences Bill was being drafted.

He also pledged that the "next roll-out of CCTV cameras will be a lot faster". He had been embarrassed that he had promised communities two or three times that the cameras would be put in place, but because of bureaucracy, it had not happened.