ANALYSIS:If the Government really wants to target gangs, additional Garda resources as well as new laws are needed, writes CONOR LALLY.
THE MURDER of Roy Collins in Limerick last month presents the State with a challenge not witnessed since Veronica Guerin was shot dead.
The crime reporter’s killing in 1996 was an attempt by criminals, emboldened by their own sense of invincibility, to neutralise anybody who got in their way. The gang responsible was so convinced it was above the law, it believed it could kill a member of the press and get away with it.
That self-belief resulted from a sustained period in which they imported vast quantities of drugs, accrued and flaunted massive personal wealth and in so doing, were largely untroubled by the law. For them there was no law; Guerin’s murder proved they had placed themselves outside it.
The State’s response was an acknowledgment that Irish society was dealing with something we had never seen before. The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) and Witness Protection Programme were established. The gang behind Guerin’s murder, including its leader John Gilligan, were tried in the Special Criminal Court and jailed for lengthy periods.
Roy Collins’s killing demonstrates that for the first time in 13 years, we have another gang that thinks in the same way Gilligan’s did. The gang that killed Collins did so because one of his family gave evidence in court four years ago that helped jail one of its leaders.
Their actions, like those of the Gilligan gang, are driven by the belief that the State simply isn’t up to stopping them. The killing of a witness’s relative represents a fundamental attack on the core of the criminal justice system.
As it did in 1996, the State has now acknowledged that threat and reacted. Two new pieces of legislation are being introduced.
The Criminal Justice Surveillance Bill will empower gardaí to break into houses and other premises and secretly plant audio and visual recording equipment. Any incriminating evidence gathered can, for the first time, be presented as evidence in court.
The Criminal Justice Amendment Bill will create a number of new offences dealing specifically with participation in, and direction and control of, crime gangs. The cases will be heard in the non-jury Special Criminal Court as a matter of course rather than in exceptional cases, as has been the procedure to date.
Among other measures, the evidence of a senior garda in the court, coupled with covertly gathered surveillance will, in large part, be sufficient to secure a gang-related prosecution.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has cautioned against the positioning centre-stage of the Special Criminal Court in the new drive against organised crime. It has suggested the use of the non-jury court undermines the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said the court has successfully dealt with paramilitary figures and that the time has now come to treat major crime gangs in the same way. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has said the new legislation around gang involvement is similar to that used to jail dissident terrorists in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb.
The Government believes that, used responsibly and infrequently, the Special Criminal Court and the new gang measures have the ability to greatly assist in the prosecution of those gang leaders behind the record number of gun murders and drug seizures witnessed in recent years.
Ahern has been keen to move quickly to meet head on the growing power of gangland crime. Unlike his predecessor Brian Lenihan, Ahern seems to have grasped the urgency of the situation. However, Ahern is ushering in a get tough approach while other key resources needed to tackle the gangs are being depleted.
The number of members of the Garda is being reduced because recruitment has been stopped in an effort to cut costs. This is happening at a time when retirements from the Garda are set to spike.
Three years ago, the Garda retirement age was increased from 57 to 60. Those members who stayed on will begin retiring on age grounds this summer.
Garda numbers will fall this year and, because of the recruitment moratorium and higher retirement levels, that drop off will continue next year and in 2011.
Garda overtime has also been savaged to save money. The fund has been reduced to €80 million from €108 million. Unlike recent years, it has been made clear to Garda management that when the money runs out this year, there will be no supplementary funding. It means the real fall in overtime spending this year will be much greater than €28 million.
One Garda contributor to a recent television programme said the cutbacks meant operations against gangland crime in his area had been cancelled on most midweek nights.
The Garda cannot expect to be spared some of the pain of the recession. But can the Government genuinely claim to be getting tough on gang crime if the number of gardaí fighting the problem is being reduced and if those who remain are working significantly less hours?
Conor Lally is Crime Correspondent of The Irish Times