STEVE COLLINS has welcomed the decision by the Garda Commissioner to return the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to Limerick one year after his son’s murder.
Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the death of 35-year-old Roy Collins. He was shot dead at the Coin Castle Arcade at Roxboro Shopping Centre.
The Collins family will tomorrow unveil a plaque at the shopping centre in memory of the father-of-two.
Speaking yesterday from the Steering Wheel pub, which he still operates, at the shopping centre, Mr Collins said: “The anniversary doesn’t even matter because I think about him every single day. It hurts me every single day I wake up,” he said.
Mr Collins met Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern on Thursday and discussed security arrangements for his family, who are under 24-hour Garda protection.
He also requested the redeployment of the ERU to Limerick.
“After our meeting in Dublin, we were promised that there would be a response like this and I’m just happy that he’s done it. He kept his word,” said Mr Collins.
“We asked for it. When we saw the ERU down here before, we saw a massive difference on the streets and everything went quiet, and they certainly had an impact. And we want that kind of impact again,” he said.
The commissioner visited Limerick with the Minister for Justice on the eve of Roy Collins’s anniversary to meet senior gardaí.
Speaking after the meeting, the commissioner admitted that upcoming high-profile murder trials and “difficult times” for Limerick over the coming weeks had prompted his decision to deploy the ERU to Limerick.
According to the commissioner, the specialist armed intervention unit will be seen on the streets “almost immediately” to help prevent violent crimes.
The move also follows the recent release from prison of Wayne Dundon (32), who served five years for threatening to kill Roy Collins’s step-brother Ryan Lee in 2004.