Bertie's late conversion to "zero tolerance"

LAUNCHING its proposals on criminal justice on Wednesday, Fianna Fail repeated its by now familiar promise of "zero tolerance" of crime. This policy has already been characterised by the Garda as a "nightmare", implying as it does a level of law enforcement that most of the public would regard as oppressive.

Will the party in government, for instance, end the Garda's open policy of compassion towards distraught women who have committed infanticide? This is a very serious crime, carrying a life sentence, but there is a clear if unofficial policy of asking women who have abandoned dead babies to come forward and seek help on the understanding that they will not be prosecuted.

And if zero tolerance is now Fianna Fail policy, could we be told when exactly the party leader was converted to it?

On at least seven occasions, while Bertie Ahern has been in cabinet and collectively responsible for all government decisions, Fianna Fail has failed to enforce the law with anything like the kind of rigour that he now espouses:

1. Every Fianna Fail Minister for Justice has used the powers of the office to rem it sentences passed by the courts. Convicted offenders, usually guilty of breaches of the motoring laws, regularly petition the Minister to have their sentences reduced or even waived. This system is perfectly legal, and there is no suggestion that it has been abused, but it has also caused immense frustration to the Garda and the judiciary.

2. In 1987, in putting forward a beef industry development plan cent red on Goodman International, the single party Fianna Fail government made, according to the current Chief Justice, a decision that "would appear to be contrary to the provisions of the Industrial Development Act 1986".

3. In March, 1988, when the Fianna Fail cabinet decided to remove a clause in the agreement between the IDA and Goodman International, it broke the same law. According to Mr Justice Hamilton, "there is no doubt whatsoever but that the Government on the 8th day of March, 1988, wrongfully and in excess of its powers under the provisions of the Section 35 of the Industrial Development Act 1986, directed the Authority to remove the performance clause from the grant agreement being negotiated between the IDA and the Goodman group..."

4. Between 1987 and 1989, at a time when it was in possession of a Customs and Excise report detailing a large scale fraud on the European Union by Goodman International, the Fianna Fail government gave huge public benefits to the same company in the form of export credit insurance and Section 84 tax reliefs. Explaining his decision to give such extraordinary levels of support to a company that was breaking the law, the party leader of the time, Charles Haughey, dismissed the evidence of fraud as "not all that significant".

5. In 1989, that same government introduced a tax amnesty under which many thousands of people who had committed criminal offences by evading taxes were not merely absolved of their crimes, but rewarded for breaking the law by being allowed to pay those taxes at a greatly reduced rate.

6. In 1994, the Fianna Fail Labour government, in which Bertie Ahern was Minister for Finance, introduced an amnesty for "hot" money and for evaded taxes. It has been widely reported, most notably by the late Veronica Guerin, that this amnesty was used extensively by criminal gangs to legitimise the proceeds of drug dealing. Fianna Fail has not always been noted for the severity with which it has regarded white collar crime such as tax evasion. In the debate on the beef tribunal report, for instance, Ned O'Keeffe TD accused tax inspectors of "virtually hounding publicans and small businesses".

On Mr Justice Hamilton's recommendation that auditors be legally required to report tax evasion which they discover in their clients' books, he said that he was "against any extension of the powers to compel auditors to inform on their clients. I believe this could have (sic) a kneejerk reaction which could smack of big brother - the State - spying on its people".

7. In 1994, the office of a Fianna Fail appointed attorney general delayed for seven months the processing of an extradition request for Father Brendan Smyth, subsequently convicted on multiple charges of child sexual abuse. This was not considered by Fianna Fail Ministers, including Bertie Ahern, to be sufficient grounds for objecting to the appointment of that attorney general as president of the High Court.

None of this suggests that either individually or collectively Fianna Fail ministers condone crime. But, however the record of governments in which Bertie Ahern has served is to be characterised, it cannot be as "zero tolerance" of breaking the law.