The Gazette 1974

ESTIMATES OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DAIL DEBATES—VOL. 270, No. 3) 12 FEBRUARY 1974 Mr. Cooney, the Minister for Justice: however motivated, in this island and to recommend as a matter of urgency the most effective means of dealing with those who commit those crimes. Secondly, there L the police authority to be set up here, appointments to which will be made after consultation with the Council of Ministers of the Council of Ireland.

I propose, as is traditional, to give a brief resumé in Aspect of the period since the last debate on the Estimates for the Department of Justice of the most Noteworthy developments in the various services for w hich I am the responsible Minister. My basic concern must be the security and safety of me State. Unless the State and its citizens and its Mstitutions can be kept secure from attack no progress ran be made in the fields of economic or social reform. Unfortunately we have within our society at the Moment a small group of organised subversives whose Presence constitutes a threat to the security of the Mate. I indicated that peace and security were necessary if are to make progress in economic and social reform. a m charged as Minister for Justice with control over a Sireat variety of social legislation—adoption, the whole a Ma of family law, which raises the problem of deserted Wl ves, their rights against their husbands and rights to the family home, annulments, guardianship of chil- d r e n and also the question of rent control, ground re Ms, landlord and tenant law, censorship of publica- t l 0 n and films. Th e re are other areas for which I have re sponsibility with a highly important legal content Mch as the Land Registry, Public Records Office, harity Commissioners and the operation of the Courts toerns e i ves Indeed, it could be said that these latter a °tivities also have a high social content. . When one hears them listed out it will be noticed la * some of these areas require legislative changes, j e ps towards bringing in those changes have already )e en taken. Wh at I want to emphasise at this * ta ge is that while they are all urgent it is not possible 'ntroduce all these reforms instantly. Wh at is possible 'j a steady programme of reforming legislation right hrough my term of office. I intend to see that this pro;gramme is carried through to a successful con- tusion and I want to emphasise that in drawing up the ^ ' o rms I will be in touch with groups who have a Nowledge or special interest in the particular area in Mo t i on. S unningdale Conference I We are entering a particularly critical phase of Irish •story with the Sunningdale communique, the forma- °n of a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland a n d the approaching formal conference to confirm acc eptance of the agreed communique that was signed a t the end of the Sunningdale Conference. These events la ve within themselves the capability of achieving peace j.° r this island and it is important for that reason and '. 0r the continued security and welfare of this State a t these initiatives succeed. I should like to refer very briefly to the agreed com- btoniqué issued at the end of the Sunningdale Con- ^tonce in December and, particularly, to two of the e ments in the communique th^t concern me as Minis- Justice. First, there is the Law Commission that a<; been set up jointly by the Irish and British Govern- to er >ts to consider all the proposals that had been put 0p ward at Sunningdale for dealing with the problem of Mging to trial persons who commit crimes of violence,

As the House will be aware, the Law Commission have already begun their work. As regards the setting up of a police authority enabling legislation will be necessary and initial preparatory work of gathering information and ideas has already begun. I will shortly be having consultations and discussions on the matter with the Garda authorities and the Ga r da Representa- tive Bodies before bringing my proposals before the House. I fully recognise the importance of having their views on a matter of such fundamental importance to their Force. Control of explosives; General crime figures The stringent controls that ..ave been in operation for some time now with regard to the use and storage of explosives are being continued. The controls which were extended during 1972 to certain ammonium nitrate mixtures, sodium chlorate and nitrobenzine are aLo being maintained. I am aware that this has caused in- convenience to commercial users of the materials con- cerned but I know that they will appreciate how neces- sary it is to have the existing security arrangements. The protection of life and property is of primary im- portance and, so long as the situation requires it, the Government will strive to ensure that materials for bomb making do not get into the wrong hands. At the outset I should like to refer to the general crime situation. The crime figures increased again in 1972 but the rate of increase was much less than in 1971. These are the latest figures available. I am pleased to be able to say that the indications are that the steep upward trend of recent years may have been halted. In the year ended 30 September, 1972, 39,237 indictable offences were recorded as against 37,781 in the previous year, an increase of 3.8 per cent. Two thirds of these consisted of offences against property without violence, mainly larcenies, and I would remind the House that larcenies, generally, even where the value of the money or goods stolen is trivial, are indictable offences. In the vast majority of the cases of offences against property, either with or without violence, which were recorded during the year, the value of the property stolen was less than £50. Offences against the person have been almost con- stant over the past four years, but offences against property showed a small increase of 4.4 per cent over the 1971 figure. Indictable offences Proceedings were instituted by the gardai in respect of 15.705 indictable offence; known to them or 40 per cent of the total. The overall detection rate fell to 43 per cent as compared with 46 per cent in the previous year. In the Dublin Metropolitan Area the detection rate was 34 per cent while in the rest of the country it was 58 per cent. For some of the more serious crimes, the detection rate was as high as 90 per cent while for certain categories of less serious offences against pro- perty it was as low as 37 per cent. I should mention 100