THE Central Criminal Court is to sit for three extra weeks beginning on September 16th, the Minister of State for Justice told the House.
Ms Joan Burton said three judges instead of two would sit during that period. There would also be additional Circuit Court sittings throughout the State, particularly in the south east, southwest and western circuits where delays were generally longer.
She was speaking during a debate on a joint FF-PD Private Member's motion calling for a wide range of measures, including extra court sittings, to combat crime. Ms Burton said organised crime was a threat to the security of the State and they should have no illusions about it.
But there was need for a balanced debate on crime, she said adding it would be wrong to say law was the only answer. Improving the criminal justice system would not of itself change the deep rooted nature of crime in our society. "You must attack not just, crime, but the causes of crime, she added.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said the murder of Veronica Guerin, following so soon after the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe and a spate of other murders, had cast a shadow over the safety and freedom of democracy.
"That shadow will remain as long as the killers, and those who motivated them, are at liberty. It will last for as long as we continue to tolerate the unhindered existence in our society of criminals, who have brazenly accumulated vast and unexplained wealth and who regard themselves as untouchable, regardless of the crimes they have committed, or conspired to organise," he added.
The only potential impediment to the assets of drug barons and organised criminals being seized was political will, and the House had the political well to turn those people out of their mansions and estates.
Mr Ahern suggested consideration be given to a grand jury pretrial investigative procedure, such as existed in the United States, to aid the Garda.
There should also be the provision of a proper system of granting immunity from prosecution to witnesses prepared to give evidence against crime bosses, as well' as with a witness protection programme and the introduction of a properly structured system of plea bargaining to encourage criminals to give evidence against each other.
The delays between arrest and trial were wholly unacceptable, but the appointment of judges alone achieved nothing. They must have an appropriate back up to function properly.
The PD spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said the murder of Veronica Guerin was a message that would be ignored at the State's peril. It was that some people would stop at nothing, and that some people considered themselves above the law.
"These untouchables will claim the right to a fair trial while intimidating those who would testify against them. They will rob banks and then launder the proceeds of their crimes through the same institutions," she added.
Ms O'Donnell said she had never pretended that the present chaos in the prosecution system, or in the courts and prisons, was the personal fault of the minister for Justice, but they had been her responsibility for over two years.
To run a criminal justice system without adequate prison spaces was like running a tourist industry without adequate hotel beds, she said. There had been many reports on the prison system. The Whitaker report of 1985 was an in depth examination of the prison system, but it was noticeable that its recommendations had never been implemented.
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said public confidence in the ability of the Government to tackle crime had reached an "all time low" in the wake of the murder of Veronica Guerin. She added that the Government's anti crime measures were a belated recognition that urgent action was required.
