Fianna Fáil to announce plans to tackle gangland crime

The pre-cooked manifestos being rolled out now will tell a lot about the priority political parties had really intended to put on gangland before crime became the election campaign’s unexpected lead issue.

There is a sneak peek at Fianna Fáil's plans this morning for our loyal subscribers, as the party's justice spokesman Niall Collins attempts to steal the 'law and order' mantle from Fine Gael and capitalise on Sinn Féin's hard-to-sell position on the Special Criminal Court.

Later this morning, Fianna Fáil will call for the setting up of a new Serious and Organised Crime Unit, with a special Cybercrime section, designed to "tackle gangland crime head on" in conjunction with Interpol and other police agencies.

The party will advocate the retention of the Special Criminal Court and, like the Government parties, commit to a second non-jury court to deal with a backlog of cases.

Mr Collins will say the “continued threat of dissident terror groups and scourge of organised gangland crime” means only such a court can provide a “viable route” to prosecuting serious criminals, while protecting jurors and their families.

He will point to its role in "breaking up vicious criminal gangs" in his native Limerick as testament to its effectiveness.

When Labour’s manifesto is published next week it will see proposals for a “drugs court” to be put on a statutory footing and the enactment of new sentencing legislation to ensure greater consistency.

Commitments to increased Garda recruitment and more community gardaí will be included.

Fine Gael will unveil its justice proposals on Friday, and until then is pointing to Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald’s announcement of so-called “saturation policing” and a new armed support unit for Dublin.

Sinn Féin had no choice but to include its long-standing policy of wanting to repeal the Offences Against the State Acts in its manifesto.

Otherwise it would have faced renewed claims from Mr Collins and others that it was putting loyalty to friends ahead of the need to protect witnesses, given that “good Republican” Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy’s sentencing for tax offences is imminent.