Only 10% of stolen property recovered
Fine Gael’s Justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe has criticised that recovery rate of 10% as “derisory”.
He said it shows that “criminals are running rings around the State”.
However, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday insisted that crime is by no means out of control here. And he warned that criminals are to face tougher measures.
Speaking at an agriculture conference in Birr, Co Offaly, the Taoiseach said the Criminal Justice Bill will be introduced shortly.
Pointing out that the laws on guns will be significantly strengthened, he said: “As the criminal gets more vicious, we have to get tougher.”
Mr Ahern said the money in drugs nowadays attracts a difficult criminal element which the gardaí have to face up to and fight.
He also stressed that there is no acceptable level of crime.
“We live on an island where we saw that for too long but crime here is not by any means out of control. We have a huge detection rate and are still getting a lot of very good prosecutions,” he said.
However, Mr O’Keeffe blamed the poor recovery rate for stolen property on Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s failure to give the gardaí proper resources.
“The gardaí are doing their utmost to recover stolen goods but are hampered by limited manpower and the refusal of Justice Minister Michael McDowell to provide them with adequate resources,” he said.
“The rate of recovery of stolen property is actually falling: the value of recovered property dropped from €4.3m in 2003 to just over €3m last year.”
He said the level of burglary was 18% higher in the last quarter of 2005 compared to 2004.
Fingal county councillor Leo Varadkar (FG) said an armed raid in Castleknock on Thursday was clear proof that Mr McDowell was losing the fight against organised crime and that Dublin was beginning to resemble East LA.
“It is now crystal clear that the Government has lost control in the fight against organised, gangland and gun crime,” he said.
