Bernard J. Durkan
Question:91 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice if she has satisfied herself that the law is sufficiently updated to enable the Garda contain the rise in serious crime; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Capacity of Law to Cope with Crime Level.
It goes without saying that I am fully committed to taking all steps necessary to combat crime and Deputies will be aware that I made a comprehensive statement on the subject in this House last Tuesday night. As well as providing the necessary resources to the various agencies within our criminal justice system it is clearly vital that our criminal law should be kept under continuous review and reformed where this is needed to adapt to the modern realities of crime. In this context Deputies will be aware that, since becoming Minister for Justice, I have initiated a comprehensive programme of criminal law reform.
I would mention in particular the Criminal Justice Act, 1993 and the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill, 1993. The latter should greatly improve the ability of the Garda to deal with certain forms of unacceptable behaviour which can cause such distress to ordinary law abiding citizens. In addition, the Bill provides for an offence specifically aimed at racketeering.
I hope also to introduce two further pieces of major criminal justice reform legislation later in this session. These are a Confiscation of Proceeds of Crime Bill which will deal amongst other things with the seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime and the creation of an offence of money laundering, and a Criminal. Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which is intended to achieve significant improvements in the operation of the criminal justice system generally.
There are, of course, other areas of criminal justice legislation which are also being given attention in my Department at present including juvenile justice, criminal insanity, fraud and dishonesty, abolition of the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours and consequential changes in the law relating to powers of arrest without warrant, offences against the person, extradition and indexation of fines. I intend to bring forward legislative proposals in all of these areas as quickly as possible.
In a nutshell, the position is that while the question of further worthwhile reforms of the criminal law is something that needs to be kept under constant review, the current pace of reform and plans for reform adequately meet what is required for more effective law enforcement.
In the context of the Deputy's question referring to the rise in serious crime, I think that it might be helpful to mention that while the recently published Garda Commissioner's report on Crime for 1992 showed a 1 per cent increase in the level of indictable crime recorded for that year the category of crime which, understandably, causes the greatest distress to members of the community — offences against the person — continues to show an overall downward trend with a decrease of 9.5 per cent.