THE EMERGENCY Response Unit (ERU) is to be deployed in Limerick over coming days to help local gardaí in their ongoing battle against organised crime.
The specialist armed intervention unit will be seen on the streets “almost immediately” to help prevent violent crime in particular shootings, the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy announced yesterday.
Mr Murphy made his comments at Roxboro Garda station in Limerick following a meeting with Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and some of the city’s most senior gardaí.
The meeting took place on the eve of the first anniversary of murdered Limerick businessman Roy Collins, who was shot dead on April 9th last while working in his casino, located across the road from the Garda station at Roxboro shopping centre.
It also followed the recent release from prison of 32-year-old Wayne Dundon who served five years for threatening to kill Mr Collins’s step-brother Ryan Lee in Brannigan’s pub in Limerick in 2004.
Speaking after the meeting the Commissioner said upcoming high-profile murder trials and “difficult times” for Limerick over the coming weeks had prompted the decision to deploy the ERU to Limerick.
He also said he is confident of upcoming prosecutions against a number of criminal gangs targeted under new legislation introduced following the murder of Roy Collins last year.
“Based on what the assistant commissioner, the chief superintendent and the two superintendents have said to me today I have agreed to allocate the Emergency Response Unit to Limerick for a period of time,” The Commissioner said. “We see difficult times in Limerick coming up in the next few weeks. There are high-profile trials going to take place and the Emergency Response Unit will be here working with the gardaí to ensure that crime and particularly violent crime and shootings are prevented.”
The last time the ERU was deployed to the city was after the murder of 24-yea-old rugby player Shane Geoghegan, who was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2008.
His murder trial along with the trial of the 24-year-old man charged with killing Roy Collins are due to begin in the coming weeks.
Mr Ahern has described the murder of Roy Collins as the catalyst for the new criminal legislation introduced last year to tackle gangland crime.
The Minister said he was confident the legislation would stand the test of time and said anti-gang laws and the surveillance legislation was being used by gardaí on a very “active basis”.
“We will see results on those two pieces of legislation in the not too distant future, “ he said.
Mr Murphy also said he was confident of upcoming prosecutions under the new legislation. “A number of files are now with the DPP awaiting a decision by him and I would expect progress in the near future. But I have to say as commissioner of the gardaí it’s ultimately a matter for the DPP.”
He added: “We are doing our best to put together the evidence that is required under the new legalisation. That legislation, as I’ve said before, is necessary and I look forward to prosecutions not just here in Limerick but in other parts of the country and we have targeted a number of gangs and files have been sent to the DPP with strong recommendations for prosecution.”
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern insisted there was no shortage of gardaí in Limerick. “The number of guards in Limerick city has increased [by] 33 per cent in the last three or four years. A dramatic increase,” he said.