Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I absolutely condemn the cold-blooded murder of a man this morning, when gunmen entered the Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street and shot two nephews of Gerry Hutch. Gareth Hutch, aged 35, was fatally wounded and Ross Hutch, aged 24, is understood to have received non-fatal injuries. This happened in broad daylight, in very close proximity to an armed Garda unit on patrol.

I utterly condemn what has happened today, these people know no respect for life or limb. I have heard people from the community speak today including the Archbishop of Dublin. I have received an invitation from Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan to go to the location and I intend to accept the invite. I was there recently when I attended the funeral of Martin O'Rourke, an innocent man who was murdered in close proximity to the location of today's shooting.

Deputy Martin has pointed out that when Veronica Guerin, God rest her, was shot at Newlands Cross, the Government of the day ramped up the situation to deal with those who carried out that murder and the gangs involved at that time. Obviously it took quite a long time for people to be brought to justice and to serve prison sentences arising from that murder. I met with the Garda Commissioner along with senior Garda personnel and the Minister for Justice and Equality quite recently. I asked the direct question: "Are you having sufficient resources made available to you to do the job that you need to do?" I think that Deputies might not fully appreciate the scale of personnel involved in this kind of activity from a Garda resources point of view. I was assured, as was the Minister for Justice and Equality, that the resources and facilities are being made available to gardaí which they require to do the job. The Minister also met with people last week and very major investigations are ongoing since the Regency Hotel murder. The painstaking work that has to be done by the gardaí and by intelligence personnel is painstaking and very labour intensive and that point was made to me. Over the years gangland criminals have become more sophisticated in the way they communicate but not so much in the way they deliver their death warrants which is still by guns and bullets and at times entry to locations where indiscriminate shooting takes place.

There has been absolutely no scaling back with regard to the operations or resources available to the Commissioner and the gardaí to do this job. Following this morning's murder and shooting I hope the Garda can bring those perpetrators to justice quickly.

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