Labour's spokesperson on Justice Pat Rabbitte has called on the Government to introduce legislation to put the Witness Protection Programme on a statutory footing in order to tackle organised crime.
Speaking in the Dáil earlier, Mr Rabbitte said "a statutorily based Witness Protection Programme must be an essential element of the Garda response to the changing nature of crime - organised crime, gang welfare and drug trafficking".
Labour Justice spokesman, Pat Rabbitte
The current programme is not statutorily based and legal uncertainty was created in 2003 by Paul Ward's successful appeal for his conviction for murdering journalist Veronica Guerin on the grounds of the unreliability of evidence from witnesses in the programme.
"We must have regard to the views of the Supreme Court when it insisted that the terms of the Programme should be set out clearly for any participant. The Court of Criminal Appeal was even more uncompromising in its criticism of the existing situation. The Minister might indicate what plans he has in this critical area," said Mr Rabbitte.
Justice Minister Brian Lenihan said the Dáil had enacted a wide range of measures to deal with the activities of gangs.
"Many of the measures contained in the recent Criminal Justice Act will inevitably take a while to have full effect and they should be given time to do so. But I have no doubt that we as legislators must always stand ready to make any further changes to our criminal laws that prove necessary. In that regard, for example, I will be bringing proposals before this House for the creation of a DNA database," said Minister Lenihan.
Fine Gael's Justice spokesperson, Charles Flanagan, called for greater powers to gardai and mandatory sentencing in order to tackle gangland crime.
"Far from criminal gangs being eradicated during the past ten years of Fianna Fáil Government, we have now reached the stage where a Garda attempting to stop a stolen vehicle last week was shot in cold blood. I hope this heinous crime will be the catalyst that will shake this Government out of its slumber and force it to face facts," said Mr Flanagan.