Rabbitte says criminals acting 'with impunity'

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has defended the Garda response to crime as Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed that criminals were operating "with impunity" because they believed they would not be brought to justice.

Mr Ahern said gardaí had been actively involved against drug gangs for a considerable time. Significant resources had been deployed on Operation Anvil and included 1,792 arrests and 374 firearms seizures. The figures showed the levels of activity and viciousness of the drugs gangs.

Referring to the "extraordinary drive-by shooting" on the M50 on Sunday morning, Mr Rabbitte said people "could not believe that rival gangs could engage in such a shoot-out at dawn on a busy motorway".

It seemed that "young thugs are visiting nightclubs wearing flak jackets, with deadly weapons stowed away in high-powered vehicles which they have secured from their ill-gotten gains. They are prepared to risk a shoot-out on a busy motorway because they know the chances of being detective or convicted are minimal."

Serious crime was being fuelled by drugs and "cocaine-crazed young thugs are prepared to regard human life as expendable so they can get their hands on the lucrative and obscene wealth that comes from the drugs racket which is plaguing and ravaging many communities in Dublin and elsewhere".

Mr Rabbitte said that in west Dublin, one 27-year-old was shot because he owed a debt of €500.

That was "how cheap human life has become and there is no evidence I can see that there is any preparation to sit on these gangs until they are brought to justice. They are running through this city with impunity and the Minister for Justice is addressing every other subject except the one for which he is politically accountable."

He added that of 75 killings in five years, there were 12 convictions. "These young thugs believe they can do this with impunity. They believe they will not be brought to justice and that, on a lottery, they have a great chance of escaping conviction. As matters stand, they are right."

Hitting out at the level of serious crime. he derided the Government's "zero tolerance" policy claims when it came to government in 1997.

But Mr Ahern said there was more crime "when Deputy Rabbitte sat at the Cabinet table, when there was a population of half a million less and there were fewer gardaí".

He said of one of the men involved in the M50 incident: "If a person gets shot on a Saturday morning, refuses to say anything and releases himself from hospital only to get shot two weeks later by fly-past gangs and say nothing again, he should perhaps be arrested for his own safety."

Pointing to the Government's achievements, Mr Ahern said he believed Mr Rabbitte would not have opposed the referendum on bail, "cancel prisons programme, be against extra gardaí or vote against our proposals on minimum sentences".