Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 2 Apr 1996

Vol. 463 No. 6

Written Answers. - Contract Killings Investigation.

Tony Gregory

Ceist:

56 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice the progress, if any, made to date by the Garda in the investigation of contract killings; the number of such murders carried out over the past five years; the Garda success rate in this regard; and the steps, if any, which have been taken to deal with the growing problem. [16395/95]

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Owen)

I need hardly say that the Garda Síochána allocate optimun resources to the investigation of all murders. The primary task is to identify those responsible and to assemble evidence to support their prosecution. Special attention is also directed to the motivation involved.

The Serious Crime Squad at the Central Detective Unit gathers intelligence and information on all serious crime. Every effort is made in the examination and collation of this material to establish if the crimes are linked in any way. This includes, in the case of murder, trying to establish if there is a common prepetrator for two or more offences. The Garda authorities are satisfied that maximum resources are deployed to solve all murder cases including the identification of possible so-called contract killers.

The total number of murders and suspected murders over the past five years and the number of detections each year are set out in the table below. Deputies may note that the figures for the years 1990 to 1993 inclusive are a little lower than those contained in the Annual Garda Crime Reports. The reason for this is that some cases classed originally as "murder" will subsequently be classified under a different heading, e.g. "manslaughter", on the basis of more complete information or as a result of court decisions in the meantime.

Year	Number of murders and suspected murders	Number of detections
1990	11	9
1991	13	10
1992	19	14
1993	17	15
1994	25	20

Note: These are total murder figures — it is not possible to say, with certainty, how many of these could be classed as “contract” killings.

Provisional figures for 1995 show that 41 suspected murders occurred in that year. It is important to note that these are provisional figures and, subject to the outcome of Garda investigations and/or directions from the law officers, a number of these cases may be subsequently reclassified as manslaughter, etc. To date, 31 detections have been made in respect of these cases.