Garda will respond to fears, says Nóirín O’Sullivan

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has described two murders in Dublin on Monday as “absolutely horrific” and moved to assure local communities that gardaí would respond to their fears.

A number of lines of inquiry in relation to the murder in Summerhill were being conducted. She stressed the murder in Clondalkin was a “completely separate” event and unrelated to gangland feuding.

Significant inroads had been made on organised crime since the amalgamation of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau in March 2015, particularly in drug dealing, drug trafficking and drug trading, she said.

More than 200 arrests had been made and “significant weaponry” had been seized, along with €30 million worth of drugs including cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.

Tackling organised crime, on which the Garda had an excellent record, would always be a priority. Right across the Garda, outside the specialised unit, inroads were being made against organised crime.

“We will never give up our fight against organised crime or the harm that people will cause to communities,” the commissioner said.

Border region

Armed capacity would be increased in the Border region in the coming months and there would be an increase in the number of adequately trained personnel.

However, the focus was to have a 24/7 armed response unit “right around the country” to augment and support the regional and special response units, the commissioner said. She added she was very aware of the trauma these types of violent murders created in local communities.

Asked about the effect of the murders in areas such as Summerhill, she replied: “The local community in these areas no way at all support the perpetrators of these crimes.”

These were communities where people had for a long time strived for peace and harmony, and An Garda Síochána was there to protect and support them, she said.

Manpower and resources

The new Garda Representative Association president Ciaran O’Neill said the shootings on Monday “highlight a lack of manpower and a lack of resources”. “The armed units need to be beefed up,” he said. “The front line needs to be boosted and recruitment needs to be increased as a matter of urgency.”

Delegates at the annual conference in Killarney put forward a variety of views on arming gardaí in a motion debated against the backdrop of recent gun killings.

A motion by the Donegal division asked if it was “realistic” to maintain the concept of An Garda Síochána as an unarmed police force in an era of rising violent crime and international terrorism.

It was not voted upon but opposing views were put forward. The conference heard how the Garda had from the beginning been an unarmed force. However, John Monahan, seconding, said armed crime had reached new levels.

The first responders at the Regency Airport Hotel shootings had been uniformed gardaí armed only with “pepper spray and stab vests” against AK47 assault rifles.

He had been “absolutely against” arming gardaí but he had been to too many State funerals in the last few years, he said. He also urged the withdrawal of Uzi submachine guns be reconsidered.

But armed detective Darren Martin attached to Harcourt Street asked delegates to consider if they wanted to get rid of the “voluntary status” attached to armed gardaí.