Tackling organised crime is top Garda priority over next three years

GARDA COMMISSIONER Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern have identified the tackling of organised crime as a key priority for the Garda for the next three years.

The commitment is contained in the Garda’s policing plan for 2010 and the force’s three-year strategy document, both of which were published yesterday.

The publication of the short and medium-term plans follow an upsurge in gang-related activity in the first weeks of the year, with four fatal shootings in Dublin and one in Cork.

Opposition parties have criticised the Government’s recent response to the threat posed by organised crime gangs.

Labour’s spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte TD noted that legislation introduced last year providing for gangland trials to take place at the non-jury Special Criminal Court has yet to be used, some eight months after its introduction.

Mr Rabbitte said: “The worsening crime situation will not be addressed by legislative stunts designed to show that the Government is doing something. What we need now is not more law, but the effective enforcement of the existing law.”

Fine Gael’s spokesman on justice Charlie Flanagan TD said Mr Ahern was “losing the war” on gangland crime. “The tentacles of gangland crime have such a grip that we require a package of solutions rather than occasional piecemeal gestures designed to convince the public that the Minister is on top of the problem.”

The Garda’s Policing Plan 2010 states that organised gangs will be identified and profiled and drug trafficking and street drug-dealing will be tackled and assets confiscated.

As well as combating organised crime, other Garda top priorities in its policing plan for 2010 and its three-year strategy to 2012 include:

Ensuring the Republic’s security against indigenous and international terrorist threats;

Increasing the enforcement of road-traffic legislation with a view to further reducing road deaths;

Combating anti-social behaviour by identifying blackspots, responding more quickly to call-outs and having a zero tolerance approach to drink-related disorder.

In the An Garda Síochána Strategy Statement 2010-2012, the force sets out a major commitment to community policing which the commissioner says will lead to “a more visible Garda presence and a reduction in crime and the fear of crime in our communities”.