23 people shot dead since Justice said Ireland safe

MORE THAN 20 people have been shot dead since the Department of Justice last year insisted Ireland was a safe country.

The department’s assurances over public safety and crime came last April after a week in which three people were murdered, a further two were stabbed and two were beaten savagely.

At the time, a Justice Department spokesman told the Irish Examiner: “It’s not true to say that it’s a claim that Ireland is a safe country - it’s a fact by European standards.”