Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Kenny knows the fight against crime is an ongoing battle. It has always been that way and it will continue to be so. That does not only hold true for this country but for every western democracy. We have to keep dealing with the small but vicious and ruthless group of criminals who are involved in this. They will resort to any kind of action and the many murders in north Dublin and the greater Dublin area are part of this. We continue to prioritise the fight against criminals and to deal with this issue.

This morning the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform briefed me on his meeting yesterday with Commissioner Conroy and Deputy Commissioner Murphy. He set out how the significant resources of the Garda Síochána are being deployed to tackle gangland crime. He emphasised that the Garda Síochána did not have any resource or legislative problem in its efforts to deploy gardaí and equip them to address the challenges of crime.

Commissioner Conroy also briefed the Minister in considerable detail on the investigations into the 29 murders in 2006, 13 of which involved a firearm. Some 20 of these cases have been solved and files have been sent or are being prepared to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. With regard to the other nine murders the commissioner updated the Minister on the investigations and briefed him on the issues that arise in these cases. A small number of criminals are prepared to take any action they deem necessary to protect their position, including extreme violence and murder. We continue to give top priority to targeting organised crime.

Regarding gun crime, under Operation Anvil the Garda Síochána has confiscated an enormous number of guns and handguns. Guns can be obtained cheaply in this jurisdiction or others and the latest figures available show that since the introduction of Operation Anvil, some 527 firearms have been seized resulting in 2,830 arrests for serious crimes, 43 arrests in connection with murders in the Dublin metropolitan region and 1,298 individuals being charged to date under Operation Anvil. These figures are impressive. Gardaí cannot be at every house on every corner and in every lane and if serious criminals attempt to take each other out, the Garda Síochána must continue to carry out painstaking investigations into it. Every time a murder is committed, more detectives are assigned to the case and removed from preventative work.

The Minister asked if there were outstanding legislative issues, other than the passing of the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 which everyone is committed to passing in this session. The Garda Síochána has the manpower and it must attempt to break these vicious gangs. It has broken many over the past years. Our work is to support the Garda Síochána in breaking these gangs because they are unlikely to listen to anything else.

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