Gun and drug laws to be toughened up

Ireland's gun and drug laws are to be toughened up and some sentencing discretion is to be taken out of the hands of judges whom, the Minister for Justice believes, have been too lenient with serious criminals.

Mr McDowell told delegates at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Cork that the number of prison spaces is also to be significantly increased as part of a major drive by the Government to tackle the rising threat posed by underworld and dissident republican gangs.

The plans include a new 800-bed "super prison" on Spike Island, Co Cork, and legislative changes which will compel judges to hand down lengthy prison sentences to drug-dealers and those caught with firearms.

The number of prison places is to be increased from 3,300 to 4,500.

Mr McDowell said that he was determined to change the wording of 1999 legislation providing for a mandatory 10-year jail term for anyone caught with €12,500 or more worth of illegal drugs.

Provisions for mandatory sentencing allowed a judge to put aside the 10-year term in exceptional sentences. But judges were invoking that too often.

"The exception has become the norm," he said. "The judges will have to realise that the use of guns is posing a very real threat to the future of an unarmed Garda force."

Guns and drugs were now inextricably linked, because major international drug cartels were including weapons in drug shipments being sent to Ireland.

Mr McDowell expressed disquiet at the way the bail laws were being interpreted in the courts. Changes introduced following the bail referendum meant that suspects would be refused bail if a senior garda testified in court that there was a likelihood that the person would reoffend.

A number of violent criminals, including dissident republicans, had in recent times been granted bail, but had reoffended and been brought before the courts on fresh charges.

Mr McDowell said that he could not envisage any circumstance in which a person caught with firearms or explosives should not be treated by the courts as a very serious criminal.

This was why he planned to introduce mandatory sentencing for firearms offences in the new Criminal Justice Bill, which is to be brought before the Dáil in three weeks.

He believed that a mooted gun amnesty would work because similar moves had been a success in the UK in the past. The amnesty would also apply to explosives and "anything else they wanted to get rid of". However, the amnesty would not provide immunity to those who had committed crimes using arms they might surrender. All weapons would be forensically examined.

He accepted that there was a real need to recruit 2,000 extra gardaí. The Government was still committed to this and it would happen, he said.

While he planned to introduce legislation to provide for the creation of a Garda reserve force in the future, there were no active plans to establish that force in the short term. The reserves would not be used by the Government to avoid recruiting the additional 2,000 gardaí.

On prisons, Mr McDowell said that the planned new facility at Spike Island would add 500 spaces to the current 300 beds at the existing Spike Island Prison and at Cork Prison, which the new jail will replace.

There had been 28 offers of sites for the planned new 1,000-bed Mountjoy Prison, which will replace the existing Mountjoy facility as well as St Patrick's Institution and the women's Dochas Centre.

On drink-driving offences, Mr McDowell said that planned legislation allowing for random breath-testing would allow drivers caught with a blood alcohol limit of between 80mg and 100mg to pay a fixed fine and serve a disqualification period. They would not be required to go to court, which would relieve pressure on the courts and on the Garda.