A NEW law permitting the use in court of evidence gathered through covert surveillance will be debated by the Dáil and enacted before the summer recess, Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea has said.
The Minister, who represents Limerick, was commenting yesterday after the murder of 35-year-old Limerick businessman Roy Collins. Gardaí believe he was shot dead because a member of his family gave evidence against a leading member of a criminal gang in the city.
Mr O’Dea said that the Cabinet had earlier this week approved the Covert Surveillance Bill, which had been promised by the Government after the murder of Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last autumn. He said the Bill had been approved even though the Attorney General had to sign off on some small details.
“This legislation will allow the gardaí to use surveillance devices to gather information about serious criminals and, crucially, it will permit the use in court of evidence gathered in this way,” said the Minister.
He said that the murder of Mr Collins was designed to frighten people against giving evidence in court that could put leading criminals behind bars.
“It is very difficult to expect ordinary citizens to have the courage to give evidence in the light of what has happened. If evidence can’t be obtained from witnesses, because they are terrified of what will happen to them, we have to get the criminals to give evidence against themselves,” said Mr O’Dea.
He said the new law would allow gardaí to plant surveillance devices so that they could get evidence to put away those criminals who were terrorising Limerick. “The message from these people is ‘if you dare open your mouth we will get you’. They are like the Mafia and their activity just can’t be tolerated.” The Minister said the public mood in Limerick was one of anger and frustration.
Gardaí investigating Thursday’s murder of Mr Collins are continuing to question two men. The men, aged 19 and 22 years, were arrested at different locations in Ballinacurra Weston on Thursday afternoon.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he believed the murder would be solved quickly, following conversations with Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy. Detectives are confident of bringing criminal charges before the weekend is out. It is believed Mr Collins was conscious before he died and that he relayed the name of the man he believed shot him in the back.
The men in custody are linked to Limerick’s McCarthy-Dundon crime gang. The older of the two is a suspect in the investigation into the murder of Mr Geoghegan last November. The scene of Mr Collins’s murder at the Coin Castle gambling arcade owned by the Collins family was yesterday sealed off and underwent an examination by the Garda Technical Bureau.
The victim’s father, Steve Collins, was next door in the family’s Steering Wheel Pub at Roxboro Shopping Centre when his son was shot by a man armed with a handgun at 12.05pm on Thursday. Yesterday he told The Irish Times he had run to his son’s aid as he lay on the floor covered in blood.
Garda teams were yesterday searching waste ground and grass verges close to the murder scene for the handgun used in the attack. The partially burned getaway vehicle was being technically examined.