Ahern blames witnesses for gun crime failures

AN TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday squarely blamed the lack of co-operation from potential witnesses as the main reason for low detection rates for gun murders in Ireland.

Mr Ahern came up with a surprising explanation for failures in tracking down the perpetrators of gun crime.

Leader’s Questions was dominated by what the opposition described as the crisis caused three fatal shootings over the weekend, including the gunning down of an innocent bystander, Eddie Ward, in Walkinstown, Dublin, over the weekend.

Both Fine Gael and Labour suggested that the Government was abjectly failing to deal with what both parties described as a crisis.

But Mr Ahern rejected the criticism, arguing that the Garda Síochána had ample resources and pointing to huge increases in activities to combat gun, drug and gang crime.

In relation to the low rates of catching the perpetrators of gangland murders, he said gardaí “get absolutely no help from any of the people they are trying to protect”.

He also told the Dáil: “Unfortunately the reality is that in many of the cases that associates of the victim will offer the gardaí no cooperation in their attempt to pursue the perpetrator.”

Earlier, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan told the Dáil that the situation had got so bad that the Army needed to be called in as back-up.

Justice Minister Brian Lenihan responded that the Army were not trained to deal with crime.

On a day of sustained criticism of the Government’s record on crime, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny pointed out that 10 years ago, 34 out of 38 murders, or 89%, were solved. Now, the detection rate for gun crime is 10%.

“The question needs to be asked: who is in charge of our streets Taoiseach? Is it the Government or the gunmen,” he asked.

He also said that all over the country cocaine parties are now the rage.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore pointed out that in 1997, Mr Ahern told the country prior to the election that his new Government would make fighting gun crime his priority.

He recalled that Mr Ahern said at the time they would not be allowed hold sway over our communities. Ten years later, Mr Gilmore said that 140 gun murders had been committed yet only one in six had resulted in conviction. He said that 27 were unsolved last year, 20 in 2005 and 18 in 2004.

Responding to Mr Ahern’s argument about non cooperation, Mr Gilmore responded: “That is really a message of defeat.

“I am putting forward some solutions. What are you going to do about it?”

Mr Ahern rejected opposition calls for the witness protection programme to be put on a statutory basis. He said the challenge was getting witnesses to agree to participate.

Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh derided Mr Flanagan’s call to deploy the Army on the streets as “ridiculous in the extreme”.