By Paddy Clancy

The government has moved to make it more difficult for known criminals to get bail while awaiting trial.

The steps are being taken after the revelation that 23 of 24 henchmen of murdered gangland boss Martin “Marlo” Hyland were released on bail when they appeared before the courts in recent months.

Hyland, Ireland’s top drug godfather and a suspect in five murders, was gunned down in his bed in north Dublin by killers who also shot dead innocent witness Anthony Campbell.

The 20-year-old apprentice plumber – originally named as Anthony Fitzgerald because of confusion over the relationship of his unmarried parents – was fixing a radiator in the hall when Hyland’s assassins called last week. They callously shot dead young Campbell to prevent him identifying them.

As public fury mounted over the shooting, two more lives were claimed in gangland hits in Dublin and Limerick.

Noel Crawford, 40-year-old father of six, was mistakenly shot outside his parents’ home in Southill, Limerick, by gunmen who, investigators believe, intended to kill his younger brother Paul.

Gardai (police) said Noel was not in any way connected to criminal activity, but Paul had publicly admitted his association with one side of a feud between warring families in Limerick.

Just three days earlier well-known criminal Gerard Byrne, was shot dead in the International Financial Services Center in Dublin. The 25-year-old, a suspected gangland hitman, was shot up to five times in the head outside a supermarket.

In response to the escalation of gun crime Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is to be given a direct role in opposing applications for bail by suspected serious criminals.

Currently, the DPP deals with bail applications only on some occasions. Under new measures he will lead the challenge against bail in all serious cases.

In addition, more civilian staff will be employed by the Garda force to free officers from administrative duties so they can be deployed to the front line of the battle against crime.

More judges are to be appointed and there will be more staff for the Courts Service and prosecution agencies in a bid to fast-track prosecutions.

Following last week’s murders both McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy accused some judges of being “soft” on criminals in relation to bail applications.

Labor Party leader Pat Rabbitte claimed the real issue was not leniency by judges but a poor detection rate for serious crime.

“The courts are obliged to impose a penalty of life imprisonment for murder, but this is of little value when we know from figures supplied by the minister himself that the conviction rate for gun murder is less than 16%,” he said.