asked the Minister for Justice if he is satisfied with the strength of the special task force having regard to the need to have an efficient and effective force to combat robberies at banks, labour exchanges and post offices; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Garda Task Force.
4.
The allocation of Garda manpower to units such as the special task force is a matter for the Garda authorities. They inform me that the strength of the special task force is reviewed from time to time to take account of changing needs and circumstances and that the current strength of the task force is considered adequate to meet present needs.
It would, of course, be misleading to use the strength of the special task force alone as a measure of the Garda response to robberies at banks, employment exchanges and post offices. While the special task force have a particular role to play in dealing with this type of crime, their resources are additional to the measures taken by other specialised units in the force and by the gardaí at local level.
Is the Minister satisfied, from his discussions with the authorities from time to time, that the operation of the special task force is reviewed regularly to see that the best use is got from a force which has proved to be effective, certainly partly effective in ensuring that there have not been as many robberies committed? Unfortunately there still are some robberies committed from time to time. Is there a review on a regular basis to see if any changes in that task force are needed?
In the nature of things, the operations of the special task force are kept under constant review, particularly since, as the Deputy knows, this is a very flexible unit which is deployed as the need arises at any given moment. It means that we have a constant process in matching the resources to the various problems that we have to meet.
Would the Minister agree that it would be important that the special task force or any other task force operating under their control would have a preventive function in relation to banks, supermarkets, post offices, community centres and other areas which have been robbed repeatedly in Dublin in recent times? This is a feature of the nature of crime at present in Dublin. I note that the Minister says that when something arises the levels of overtime and flexibility required would be supplied. Surely, the problem is to provide the surveillance in advance of that? Can the Minister give us an undertaking that where these problems exist and are known to exist the task force will have the resources, overtime and flexibility to prevent crime happening in those circumstances by doing stakeouts and pursuing the people involved?
The Deputy started off by talking about preventive operations and concluded by talking about pursuits.
Preventive pursuits.
There is no such thing as a preventive pursuit. One pursues someone only when he has done something wrong. One is not pursuing him to prevent. The whole point of prevention——
The Minister ought to come out with me when they can tell him who is doing it.
When the Deputy pulls a boner he should have the grace to recognise it and stay quite.
(Interruptions.)
That is a great word on the other side. It is nice being a patron, if it comes to that. As I have said, preventive patrolling is part of the normal activities of the special task force.
I would refer the Minister to the Evening Herald of 14 May——
That is a bad source.
——where the Garda Representative Body were quoted. It was pointed out that the weekend before last weekend it had been learned that the bulk of the Garda Technical Bureau, including the Murder Squad, was shut down. One violent death was not attended to by the Murder Squad and most of the fingerprint and ballistic officers were off duty as were Garda photographers. We learned elsewhere that the other squads had been so tightened up in overtime and flexibility— this is either happening or not happening and it is important that the Minister tell us the truth in this House about what is actually happening — that they are not able to do the job in the way in which they professionally would like to do it. Now the Minister is telling us that the money is available to chase the robbers after the event.
I would like to say that the Chair considers that statements like "It is important to tell the truth" or "I want a truthful answer" are getting very near to innuendo and should, if possible, be avoided.
It is a factual statement.
Deputy Woods specialises in innuendo. I would direct his attention to Question No. 59 on today's Order Paper about allegations which appeared in the Evening Herald on the date he mentioned. With the greatest of respect to the group in question, that is an extremely bad source of information. That article was, to say the least, tendentious and inaccurate. No serious crime in the period referred to was left uninvestigated. In fact, in the case of the violent death not only was the crime investigated but a person was apprehended.
The argument in that case was that people were not free to go on the day, the Sunday. Of course, they investigated on the Monday, but it is a little bit late in relation to an event which occurred on the Sunday. I would ask the Minister to look at these events before they occur to try to prevent them. That is the purpose of this question.
I am bound to say that if I could find a way — I would dearly love to do it — to be able to give effect to Deputy Woods' advice, I would be Minister for Justice for the rest of my life. Two violent deaths do not occur in the same place at the same time. I want to make the point that that incident was investigated and handled in the way in which it would always have been handled. That continues to be the case.