The criminal gangs operating in the State "can and will be taken out of circulation", the Minister for Justice insisted in the Dáil last night. Marie O'Halloran reports.
Mr McDowell said their "ill-gotten gains will be vigorously pursued" and he rejected the Opposition's "dramatic" claims of 50 or 60 organised crime gangs operating in the State.
The Minister said there were 17 major organised crime gangs in the Republic, a small number of whom had paramilitary connections, either in the past or currently. During a Fine Gael private members' debate on crime, Mr McDowell warned that the young and not so young "thugs" in criminal gangs "need to be in no doubt that their activities will be met, head on, by the forces of law and order, who have full Government support and confidence in taking them on".
Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr John Deasy said, however, that while the Minister was making speeches about "winning the war on crime, the people were fighting the war".
He did not believe the Minister's promises that gangland murderers would be "tracked down and brought to justice".
There were 19 murders this year and charges were pending in only three cases. Mr Deasy said it was a "serious error of judgment" by the Minister to say there was not an issue of resources, dismissing the comments of senior gardaí.
"What this is all about is you maintaining control in your Department."
Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, asked what was the Minister's "cunning plan" to "take out these gangs. What is the status of you intelligence on the former paramilitary organisations supplying their weapons?
"Can you tell the House if they are less, more or equally dangerous than they were in their previous incarnation?"
Mr McDowell insisted, however, that the gangs were "making a very grave mistake" if they "rely on misguided rumour and innuendo to the effect that Garda morale is such that thuggery will go unchallenged".
Mr McDowell said they "are facing one of the best and most professional of police forces", which has shown that challenges by the "forces of evil", would be "met with strength and deter-mination and that no lawless minority will be allowed to undermine public order or hold their neighbours in fear".
He added that levels of public disorder were also down as a result of measures he introduced.