SEANAD REPORT:CONSIDERATION SHOULD be given to further raising tax on petrol, John Hanafin (FF) said. Oil prices were coming down, and there was a real need to ensure that the public finances were kept in order and that we restricted our carbon footprint.
The tax increase on petrol had been the most acceptable part of the Budget. Raising it again could be a help in limiting the borrowings that would be needed to pull us out of the recession.
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Acting Seanad leader Dan Boyle (GP) said he shared the concerns that many people had about the feasibility of the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority having a shared secretariat in two different locations. Responding to criticism by Eugene Regan, Fine Gael justice spokesman in the House, Mr Boyle said the proposed secretariat arrangement would be very difficult to implement. If the rest of the Government's decentralisation programme had been put in cold storage, then this particular area also needed to be looked at, he said.
"If you are going to effect savings in this area and make sure that both bodies can operate properly, they have to be located near each other in terms of shared secretariat facilities. I think this point could be put to the Minister, to see whether its possible or not," he added.
Mr Regan said the president of the Irish Human Rights Commission had a particular standing in law to ensure compliance with constitutional rights and freedoms and with such rights that were guaranteed by any international agreement, treaty or convention.
The Government had been embarrassed by the commission's report on extraordinary rendition. The Minister for Justice could not undermine entirely the effectiveness of both of these bodies by making disproportionate cutbacks in their funding. It had obviously not gone unnoticed by the Minister that the president of the commission was a former Fine Gael senator. "I believe that is why the Minister is not acting in good faith with respect to the cutbacks for these bodies. The approach being taken was partisan and vindictive," said Mr Regan.
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Liam Twomey (FG) said he had been distressed to hear that the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner were saying that they had the resources and the ability to fight serious crime, when, quite clearly, they did not.
Organised crime was out of control in Limerick and a huge number of terrible crimes were being committed elsewhere in the country. "We have also been made aware that they are throwing open the doors of the prisons across the country at this moment in time," said Mr Twomey.
Labhrás Ó Murchú, (FF) said a report that an individual had handed him self up to the courts, if correct, suggested that the intensity of the public outrage over the Limerick killing was having a psychological effect on such people.
Expressing disgust at the brutal slaying of Shane Geoghegan, in Limerick, Paudie Coffey (FG) said that not so long ago they had heard ministers talking about zero tolerance. "Where is the zero tolerance today when we see these people driving around in bullet-proof cars, putting their two fingers up to the law and the authorities in this country?" he asked.
Feargal Quinn (Ind) said that what had stunned him was that the individual who had surrendered to the authorities had dozens of offences recorded against him. Yet, he was "out in the open".