Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

That does not take away from the problem that we are dealing with, and the gardaí and the special detective unit increasingly are landing large hits against the criminal gangs in terms of detections, arrests and confiscation of drugs and arms. We can see there is a minority of hardened criminals who believe this is a fast way of making themselves rich and who disregard the law and democracy. That is why we are spending such significant resources on a highly sophisticated Garda.

I spoke earlier about Moyross, while the shooting yesterday occurred in Southill. Moyross is a particular area where there is a difficult group who must be dealt with and the gardaí are doing so. On the other side of it, there are decent people who want to make a better community and who are asking for resources for that. They have some excellent, top class facilities in the area. They are asking for further assistance, which they are getting. To co-ordinate that, the Government has put a particular plan in place for that community, as it has done in other areas, and pooled together State resources to do that, which we will continue to do. This area needs attention and we have moved on that. The Minister for Defence, who has first hand knowledge of Moyross, presented to us the issues we need to address to help the area and we have done that.

See this speech in context