Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I join the Taoiseach and the leader of Fine Gael in offering my sympathy and that of the Labour Party to the family, friends and sporting colleagues of Shane Geoghegan. His death was shocking and tragic and the manner in which it was carried out was disgusting.

It would be tragic if it was a once-off but, unfortunately, it is not. Shane Geoghegan's murder is one of a series of murders that have been carried out in similar circumstances — people who were mistaken, who were not in the right place or whatever. Ms Donna Cleary, Mr. Anthony Campbell and others were killed by these murder gangs.

It seems that we have two problems here. The first is that we have many gun murders. Since 1998 there have been 161 gun murders in this State and only 22 convictions. In other words, there is a one-in-eight chance of being convicted of a gun murder.

When I raised this point previously it has been suggested that it is because it takes a while for these cases to come to court. According to the figures before me, in 2003 there were 20 gun murders and only two convictions and in 2005 there were 23 gun murders and only three convictions.

The reality is the people committing these gun murders are getting away with it for a variety of reasons, including the fear that they instill in communities, in witnesses, in other members of the gang etc. We have a situation today where one can pick up the newspapers and read who was the intended victim of this killing on Saturday night last. One can read the identity of the gang that carried it out, the names of some of the members of the gang, and the whereabouts or a suspected whereabouts of some of them. The public wants to get a sense that these gangs will be smashed, put out of business and got off the stage as far as society is concerned. They are a menace and a threat to people in this country going about their ordinary business.

I will not make a political or a partisan issue out of this. I agree with the Taoiseach that there is unanimity across this House about getting this dealt with, but I found his response to Deputy Kenny somewhat defeatist. We do not want to hear the reasons certain things cannot be done. We need to see, led by Government, which my party will support in this, definitive measures taken that will solve and address this problem.

Previously, the Labour Party put forward suggestions such as the introduction of legislation on electronic surveillance and the putting of the witness protection scheme on a statutory basis. We had suggested making membership of gangs a criminal offence and the Taoiseach mentioned the section of the existing legislation which deals with this, but to my knowledge nobody has been convicted of gang membership. Perhaps the Taoiseach will state when he is responding how many people have been charged with membership of a gang under that legislation and if it is not sufficiently robust to deal with the matter, then perhaps we need to look at it again. There are provisions, for example, in the Offences against the State Act, which require people to account for their movements. To what extent is that being used?

I would like to hear a little more about the outcome of the Taoiseach's discussion today with the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. We need to hear from Government what additional legislative measures are required which will be reasonable and effective in dealing with this problem and what operational measures will be required in terms of the Garda, the Criminal Assets Bureau or the agencies of the State dealing with it. We need to have a sense that at the end of this exercise these gangs will be smashed and an end will be put them, and that we will not see any more of Saturday night's type of murder.

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