Vol. 435 No. 3
47 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice if, in view of the creation of the Cobra Detection Unit in the Garda targeted at bankrobbers, he will give his views on whether it is time to create units to target the escalating problems of drugs, car theft and joyriding.
I made a lengthy statement in the House on the subject of drugs in reply to an oral question by Deputy Gay Mitchell on 14 October, when I outlined the various strategies being adopted to deal with the problem. With regard to the Deputy's suggestion, the position is that the Garda Commissioner is responsible for Garda operational matters including the creation of the types of units referred to by the Deputy. While I strongly welcome the timely initiative by the Commissioner to establish the quick-response unit to deal with attacks against financial institutions, it does not necessarily follow that additional special units to tackle the problems of drugs, car-theft and joyriding is the right way to go about things. If the Garda Commissioner, in his professional judgment, were to advise me that this was an appropriate course to take, then I would certainly take that advice very seriously, but I have not received any such proposal to date.
