The Emergency Response Unit is to be deployed to the streets of Limerick as tensions rise in the city, the Garda Commissioner confirmed today.
Speaking in Limerick this afternoon following a meeting with the Minister For Justice Dermot Ahern and senior gardaí in the city, Fachtna Murphy accepted that upcoming murder trials and the recent release of high profile prisoners had prompted the move.
Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy held talks at Roxboro Garda station with senior Limerick gardaí today.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Murphy said he had agreed to allocate the armed force to the city “almost immediately”.
“We see difficult times in Limerick coming up in the next few weeks,” he said. “There are high profile trials going 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,” he added.
The announcement comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of murdered Limerick father-of- two Roy Collins. The 35-year-old businessman was shot dead in the Coin Castle Arcade at Roxboro Shopping Centre on April 9th, 2009.
A 24-year-old man charged with his murder is due to go on trial at the Central Criminal Court in the next few weeks.
The trial of a man accused of the murder of Shane Geoghegan is also expected to get underway in the coming weeks. The murder of the 28-year-old rugby player, who was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2008, was the last time the ERU was deployed to Limerick.
Mr Ahern insisted today that there was no shortage of gardaí in Limerick. “The number of guards in Limerick city has increased 33 per cent in the last three or four years. A dramatic increase,” he said.
Mr Ahern also confirmed he met Mr Collins’ father Steve Collins in Dublin last week to discuss security arrangements for his family. Since the murder, the Collins family has been living under 24-hour Garda protection.
The Minister previously described the murder of Mr Collins as the catalyst for new criminal legislation introduced last year.