Thank you for giving me permission to raise this important item on the Adjournment. Recent newspaper reports suggest that more than 20 kidnappings were carried out last year and the gardaí were not informed of one case for fear of reprisal. I am reliably informed that kidnappings of this nature have been happening in Ireland for the past ten years and have been increasing steadily for the past three years. In the early stages, apparently members of the Provisional IRA were the main culprits. They adopted the simple expedient of informing a target that he or she was on the list and that unless ransom was paid the target would be kidnapped. Since the peace process, kidnappings are being carried out by a group of maverick terrorists and a few ordinary criminals. Those terrorists control hundreds of heavy duty weapons and the main culprit in the ranks of the ordinary criminals is based in Bray and is well known to the gardaí.
The growth in the kidnapping business has been accompanied by a growth in kidnap insurance, kidnap protection and anti-kidnap technology. Ireland has now become similar to Italy in the mid-1980s when ordinary criminals and members of the red brigade terrorist organisation discovered that kidnapping was a lucrative source of revenue and the victims could be discouraged from informing the police because of fear of reprisal. Last year it is estimated by some that kidnapping yielded at least £1 million for criminals here, but the gardaí were not informed of any kidnap. Victims paid sums ranging up to £250,000 for their freedom and were too frightened to report the kidnap threat for fear of reprisal. Apparently, low profile wealthy business people are the principal targets. High profile figures are not being targeted because of the amount of personal security they can afford to employ and because they know the matter will not come to public attention and, therefore, not to the attention of the Garda.
What are the Government and Garda doing about this? Have the Garda any plans to deal with the escalation of this most sinister of crimes? Have the Garda even taken the preliminary step of interviewing the security firms mentioned in last Sunday's newspapers who confirmed that these kidnappings had taken place? Have they checked which insurance companies are providing insurance cover against kidnapping? Does the Government have any proposals to discourage and or prevent insurance companies from providing this type of insurance cover which is surely an incentive to kidnappers? Is the Government willing to allow this nefarious, sinister activity to grow unhindered?
When the crime figures for 1994 are released shortly I am prepared to predict they will show that more than 100,000 indictable crimes were committed here last year, the first time in the history of the State that figure will have been reached for indictable crimes. These figures are being reported at a time when reported crime, as a percentage of overall crime, is at its lowest ever.
Last week a policeman was attacked in his home. If decisive action is not taken as a matter of priority, as Mr. George Maybury of the ASGI said recently, this country will slide into anarchy. One could be forgiven for thinking that slide is already well under way.
