TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has rejected claims that the Government is "defeatist" about dealing with gangland criminals as Labour leader Éamon Gilmore called for gangs to be "smashed" and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny described the situation as a "war".
In the wake of the "appalling murder" of Shane Geoghegan in Limerick, Mr Cowen said yesterday that the heads of legislation on covert surveillance would come before Cabinet next week.
The House is expected to have a 90-minute debate tomorrow on gangland crime.
Mr Cowen said that €80 million had been provided in next year's estimates to provide for a forensic laboratory and improved DNA database, and legislation for this was also being prepared.
The actions of gangland criminals "will be met with the full force of the law, within the law".
He added that the Garda Commissioner said he would continue to lead the Garda Síochána "in this fight against those who would perpetrate such an act, that the full rigours and resources of the law available to him will be applied".
Mr Gilmore added that there was just a one-in-eight chance of a conviction for a gun murder, and he said that despite the legislation, nobody had yet been convicted of membership of a criminal gang.
The Labour leader said the Taoiseach's response was "somewhat defeatist" and he pointed out that there was only a one-in-eight chance of a conviction in a gang murder.
In 2003 there were 20 gun murders and only two convictions. In 2005, there were 23 gun murders and just three convictions, Mr Gilmore said.
"You can pick up the newspapers and read who was the intended victim of this killing. You can read the gang that carried it out and some of the names of gang members and the whereabouts of some of them."
He said "the public want to get a sense that these people are going to be smashed, closed down, put out of business and got off the stage as far as society is concerned".
Mr Kenny said the Government's response to the latest atrocity was "too bland and too easy. This is a war, Taoiseach, and it's a war that you do not appear to be winning."
The Fine Gael leader said they had previously heard comments in the Dáil "about the 'sting of a dying wasp', a 'watershed in Irish legal history, criminal history', and 'four or five years of zero tolerance'."
He asked about the use of the special criminal courts, mandatory 20-year sentences for murder and the witness protection programme.
The Taoiseach insisted that "there is nothing defeatist whatever in the Government's response".
He pointed out that "constitutionally one cannot escape the requirement according to the courts, of corroborative evidence, regardless of how respected a Garda superintendent is."
Mr Cowen said there were parameters within which they had to work. "We will do whatever is possible in that regard, consistent with the Constitution."
He wanted "to assure this House the Government will provide whatever assistance it can to deal with this threat and this crime".
Mr Cowen said that during a meeting with him and the Minister for Justice earlier in the day, the Garda Commissioner said the "powers and laws available to them allow them to continue the fight against organised crime".
He insisted that murder detection rates in the midwest region compared very favourably with anywhere else.
He said there was a recognition in Limerick of the increased visibility of gardaí and the effectiveness of their work. The number of murders involving firearms in 2007 was 18 and 27 the previous year, and 19 this year, and law enforcement was effective in some respects.
He said there was continuing intelligence-gathering "which must be allowed to continue in a way which does not open up to those who are being targeted the opportunity to find out in what way they are being targeted".
