USING syringes in crime is to become punishable by a maximum of 10 years imprisonment, the House was told.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, made the announcement as debate opened on a Fianna Fail measure, the Punishment of Aggravated Robbery Bill, which proposed a series of sentences for possession and use of syringes and similar offensive weapons.

Mrs Owen said her Bill would create new offences - injuring another by piercing the skin with a syringe of threatening to do so with the intention of causing the other person to believe that he or she may become infected with disease; spraying or pouring blood on to another person with the intention of causing the other to believe he or she may become infected with disease.

Anyone who suffered an attack of that kind "may be put through extreme mental torture, particularly if that person is wounded with a syringe and must spend a period of anguish while they wait to find out if they have been contaminated with a life-threatening disease".

The Bill would make it an offence to possess a syringe with intention to cause injury or intimidate another. This would carry a sentence of up to seven years.

The Garda would be given power to stop, question and search any person suspected of an offence using syringes. It would also be made an offence to recklessly abandon syringes in places where they might cause injury or frighten others.

The Government had approved the Bill, which would be published today. In the circumstances she could not accept "the well-intentioned but clearly inadequate provisions" of the Fianna Fail Bill.

The basic flaw in the Fianna Fail Bill was that it failed to understand the nature of the problem. It had a "cops and robbers" approach and robbery might not be the motive in a syringe attack.

Gardai were aware that favourite sport of some criminals was to leave a syringe positioned, perhaps in a squad car, in such a way that some unsuspecting garda might feel threatened. Prison officers knew the insidious threat a concealed syringe could cause while going about their duties.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, said people had the right to walk the streets, conduct their business and live their lives without fear of violence. They were entitled to ask the Oireachtas to protect them from attack.

His Bill acknowledged that existing legislation had proved inadequate as a deterrent against robberies using syringes. The number of robberies of this kind had increased dramatically. "The terror of infection is now palpable. It is not acceptable for us to wash our hands and say there is nothing further we can do."

His Bill was a "measured response" to the persistent wave of syringe robberies. It provided a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment for a first offence, seven years for a second offence and life imprisonment for any further offences.

There had been a lot of talk from the Government back benches about positive action to tackle crime. But Government deputies voted against Fianna Fail anti-crime proposals. "They talk tough and vote soft. They are lions in their constituencies and lambs in the lobbies."

Debate on the Bill continues this evening.