PRESSURE mounted on the Minister for Justice, Ms Owen, yesterday to take stronger action to combat the upsurge in crime and to tighten the system for temporary release of prisoners.
Fianna Fail called for a White Paper on crime and an urgent review of several pieces of criminal legislation.
The Progressive Democrats accused the Minister of presiding over a "chaotic, unregulated temporary release regime, which constitutes State indifference and recklessness for public safety."
A delegation from Muintir na Tire yesterday met the Minister to express its concern about recent violent assaults in rural areas.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, urged Ms Owen to abandon her "statuesque pose of studied inactivity" and bring in a White Paper. He said that while legislative change was desirable and necessary, this would not be worthwhile unless a high security prison at Castlerea and a new women's prison at Mountjoy were built without further prevarication.
It was also imperative that criminal legislation be reviewed. "Delays in bringing accused persons to trial, liberal bail laws and the question of whether an inference should be drawn from the silence of an accused persona where there is corroborative evidence are amongst the many important issues which need to be addressed at this crucial time."
The PD spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said she was appalled at reports that a person sought for the attacks on elderly farmers had escaped from Loughan House last month. She had been told in the Dail last September that 228 people had absconded from open institutions such as Loughan House and that 784 offenders who had been granted temporary release had broken their conditions of release and so were "unlawfully at large".
She said that the Minister of State, Mr Austin Currie, had stressed that open institutions accommodated less serious offenders. "In other words, the public has nothing to fear from the 228 escapees. We now know that the Minister has totally misjudged the danger to the public of such people. We also know that 30 of the 390 people released for Christmas failed to return to Mountjoy."
However, Mr Eric Byrne TD (Democratic Left) said that building new prisons would do little to relieve the current strain on prisons unless accompanied by an expansion of community policing services and a thorough reform of sentence management, including the establishment of a prisons board and a parole board.