Electronic tagging and Operation Thor plans criticised by Fine Gael’s John Deasy

Government funding for the Garda's new Operation Thor crime crackdown was "too small to achieve anything", and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald had suggested electronic tagging as an "afterthought", the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told by a Fine Gael TD.

Questioning senior officials from the Department of Justice at a committee meeting, Mr Deasy said Operation Thor promised much but would deliver little.

While €5 million had been committed under Operation Thor to fight crime, including burglary, he believed the sum was much too small to make any real impact.

It would mostly be used to fund Garda overtime, but the Garda’s total overtime budget had been cut from €138 million in 2007 to €34 million this year, he said.

Additional funding

Department of Justice acting secretary general

Noel Waters

said the allocation of the additional €5 million, to be spent over the next six months, was a decision for Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.

“To address crimes of this nature it requires visible policing,” he said.

However, Mr Deasy noted the monthly Garda overtime bill in Dublin alone reached up to €2 million.

“Now, €5 million is not going to solve anything, frankly, when it comes to overtime,” he said.

“It will achieve nothing; absolutely nothing.”

Electronic tagging

He also queried why Ms Fitzgerald had on Monday said she intended to introduce electronic tagging but this measure was not contained in her recent Burglary Bill, which sought to limit the scope for burglars on bail to reoffend.

“This was a big announcement, electronic tagging; it came after Operation Thor. Are you for this or against this?”

He posed the question after Mr Waters and his principal officer colleague Donncha O’Sullivan suggested tagging was an expensive resource, but director of corporate affairs at the Irish Prison Service Caron McCaffrey said it was cost effective when used in a targeted way.

“I’ll tell you where I’m coming from on this,” Mr Deasy told them.

“Operation Thor was announced . . . with a very small amount of money when you look at the [overall] overtime bill. It was kind of an afterthought then that electronic tagging was thrown in after announcement [unveiling Operation Thor] was made.