Gardaí are calling for new high-security Garda stations to hold serious gangland criminals who can be detained for up to seven days under new legislative provisions targeting organised crime.
They believe that if new stations with the facilities needed for seven-day detentions are not provided, criminals may later argue that their human rights were breached, making inadmissible any evidence gathered during detention.
Delegates at the Garda Representative Association's (GRA) annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo, will today be asked to support a motion calling for new maximum-security stations similar to the facility at Paddington Green in London.
Garda Damien McCarthy, of Harcourt Terrace Garda station, Dublin, last night said that while many Garda stations were unsuitable for use as workplaces, new stations were urgently needed to facilitate the new seven-day detention periods provided for under the Criminal Justice Bill.
"New laws designed to tackle serious crime will be undermined and negated by the disgraceful conditions in many Garda stations that, in many cases, will provide a legal opportunity for serious criminals who may even walk free because we do not have facilities to afford them basic rights," he said.
"We now live in a society where a new breed of criminal is armed with high-tech automatic weapons, even rocket-propelled missiles. We do not have a station secure enough to be used to detain serious criminals whose lives are at risk from other criminals, even while in custody. This is a disaster waiting to happen," he added.
The GRA conference formally starts this morning. Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy will address delegates this afternoon.
