Guerin’s brother calls for greater funding

THE Government has been called upon by the brother of Veronica Guerin to make funding available for increased Garda manpower to stamp out murderous crime gangs.

“Enough is enough, let’s go and get these guys,” Jimmy Guerin, the murdered journalist’s brother, said yesterday on Newstalk.

Speaking in the wake of the cold-blooded killing of Garryowen rugby player, Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last Sunday, Mr Guerin accused the Government of being “all talk but little action”.

He said Shane Geoghegan’s family would never get over the heartache of their son’s murder.

’You feel sadness because it brings back memories of what went on and when you stand back from it then you feel a lot of frustration. Having been so involved in Veronica’s case, having been at the courts for years, having got to know all the gardaí, what I know as a fact is that if the resources are made available, if the manpower is made available, if the overtime is paid, we have enough committed, dedicated gardaí, who will go out and beat these guys.”

Mr Guerin was critical of Government apathy.

“This is what’s wrong and this is what’s very frustrating and although Dermot Ahern will tell us today we have resources, Brian Cowen will say everything has been made available. That’s bullshit, unless the Garda commissioner is told ‘spend the money’.

“What we should do is put in an assistant commissioner. Somebody of that level who’s highly respected to take charge of the overall investigation into this killing. The same resources, the same teams need to be made available. And let’s arrest these guys, pull them in and make them feel the pain, which is the only way we can tackle crime.”