DELEGATES at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have voted overwhelmingly for a "reinstatement" of the force's "Murder Squad". They said there was a need for a specialised unit which would travel throughout the State to help local gardai with murder investigations.
The AGSI national executive supported the proposal, which stems from the dispersal in the 1980s of a group of gardai in the force's Technical Bureau which had become known as the Murder Squad.
Garda management has since retained a core specialised unit in Dublin, but has sought to ensure that gardai in all divisions have been given training appropriate to murder investigations.
Gardai from Limerick proposed the motion, with Longford/Westmeath delegates adding that the Serious Crime Unit should be expanded.
Mr Con Horan, from Limerick, said the public judged the Garda's effectiveness primarily by the way it handled murder investigations.
He said there had been a frightening rate of murders and violent killings" recently. "This is the age of the contract killer", he said. "We need to fight back stronger than ever before."
Mr Seamus Kane, a Dublin delegate, spoke against the motion, saying that he had no doubt there was enough expertise in his own division to tackle murder cases.
Where cases were unsolved, he said, it might be that the right to silence or other legal matters should be examined to see if they were presenting problems.
Mr Seamus Gallagher, of Limerick, said that the proposal was not intended to reflect badly on the competence of local gardai. They were still needed, he said.
However, difficulties had arisen when a murder in a division diverted resources away from other crime. The arrival of a specialised unit to focus on a murder could overcome that problem.
Only a handful of the 150 or so delegates present voted against the proposal.