Gun attack victim refused to identify assailant - Minister

A man who narrowly survived a gun attack refused to co-operate in identifying his would-be killer, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said.

"The problem with detections rates is a culture of omerta, even among victims. In one case, I am sorry to inform the House, an individual was shot from behind in a motor car by somebody known to him.

"The bullet went through the back of his head, came out through his mouth under his nose, and he survived that. Despite all of that, he would not co-operate in any way with the Garda in identifying his assailant."

When Labour justice spokesman Brendan Howlin suggested that the man was terrified, Mr McDowell replied that it was not solely that. It was the "omerta ethos" among some people.

It was astonishing, he said, that a man who came within an inch of death had refused to co-operate.

Mr Howlin said there were thugs who seemed to be able to act with impunity and had no regard for human life.

Mr McDowell agreed that there was a growing phenomenon of criminal gangs who used killing for a variety of purposes.

"There is no complacency on my part at all. I have been in regular contact with the Garda Commissioner and assured him of all the resources that I can possibly give him.

"I have strengthened the law, and I have made available vast sums for overtime for surveillance and the like. And anything I am asked to do relating to any of these activities, I will do."

He added that his best information was there was a variety of motives behind the four shootings in recent times. Two were quasi-domestic, and the other two appeared to have been drug-related killings.