A "TACTICAL deployment team" of gardai will shortly be in place to confront criminal activities in rural Ireland, the Minister for Justice announced. Ms Owen said that no effort would be spared by the Garda in bringing the guilty to justice.

The Minister, who was responding to special notice questions from the Fianna Fail spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, and the PD spokeswoman, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said that attacks on the elderly created a climate of fear.

There were expressions of sympathy from all sides of the House to the families of the victims.

Referring to the number of murdered and missing women, Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister if she had any information to suggest that there might be a serial killer of women at large.

She also asked if the attacks on elderly people were linked to a person who had absconded from Loughan House.

Ms Owen said that it was wrong heighten the sorrow of the families of the missing and murdered women by implying that there was a serial killer at large. "I have no evidence of that," she added. Nor had Ms O'Donnell and the Garda.

She suggested that the failure of successive Ministers for Justice to do what she, as Minister, was trying to do now in tackling the root causes of crime had led, to so many young people being involved in it. Young people and their communities had not been given help when they needed it.

Ms Owen said that she would be bringing proposals before the Government within weeks to increase prison capacity within the shortest possible timeframe a vast range of criminal law was already on the statute books which was used successfully every day in bringing perpetrators to justice.

But more could be done, and since she had become Minister, major progress had been made in criminal law reform within her Department. She believed that this year would see a wide range of criminal justice measures on the statute books.

Mr O'Donoghue said that the present backlog of murder and rape cases in the Central Criminal Court there was in excess of 24 murder cases in the queue for a trial date was contributing to the public perception that people could literally get away with murder. The wrong message was also being sent out to hardened criminals who, unfortunately, roamed society.

He said that current liberal bail laws were contributing to the current "murder epidemic." A person arrested for murder, which was the most serious crime committed, would be unlikely to get a trial date before late 1997 and would remain at liberty until then.

Ms Owen agreed that the backlog of court cases was unacceptable. The build up had been happening for years, and that was why the Courts and Court Officers Bill had been introduced and passed by the House.

She added that she was fully aware of the extent of the public alarm about crime, and she was taking action to bring about changes. She had already done so in regard to operational matters relating to her Department and in discussion with the Garda.

Ms Owen said that it was useful to put the present situation in context, although this was in no way to, take from the horror of recent crimes. In 1984, there were 432 attacks where the injured party was 65 years or older and living alone in a remote area. Following determined action by the Garda, the number of attacks decreased significantly in subsequent years.

By 1988, there were 118 attacks of this nature. In 1994, there were 69 attacks, and she understood that the figure for last year would show an increase on the previous year.