Regeneration plan official met gang members in jail
Brendan Kenny, who heads the agency, confirmed a member of his team met with the crime gang in Wheatfield prison.
The meeting, he said, took place at a time when there was a big decline in feud activity in the city.
The regeneration board wanted, Mr Kenny said, to get across the message that families would not be allowed into the new regeneration estates if they or their children did not withdraw from crime.
However, state solicitor for the city Michael Murray was yesterday highly critical of the state-supported agency entering into discussions with the crime gang. Mr Murray suggested that meeting and talking to such gangs gives them a credibility they don’t deserve.
Meanwhile, early morning searches were carried out on more than 20 houses in Ballinacurra Weston as the Shane Geoghegan murder hunt intensified. Up to 100 gardaí including the Armed Support Unit entered the estate at around 6am and targeted houses occupied by members of the McCarthy and Dundon families and known associates. Detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation with members of the crime section at Roxboro also assisted.
Although there were no arrests, one car was seized and impounded.
A nationwide alert has also been put out for John Dundon, aged 28, after a warrant for his arrest was issued at Limerick District Court. His brother, Ger, aged 21 is in Limerick prison serving a 10-month sentence after he was arrested near the courthouse building on Wednesday night by Sgt Gerry Rigney.
He had been sentenced for motoring offences and never turned up for an appeal he had lodged at Limerick Circuit Court.
Gardaí have taken possession of huge numbers of CCTV footage from various locations in Limerick and hope the dark coloured Renault Espace car used by the killers may have been picked up by some cameras.
Moves were being made by groups in the city to mount a protest in the city centre tomorrow at 2pm.
Meanwhile, details have also emerged regarding the affordable housing approval given by Limerick County Council to the long-time partner of the drug importer who was the killers intended target. As revealed by the Irish Examiner earlier this week, the woman concerned received approval despite a council stipulation that they “would not allocate houses under the scheme to persons it is satisfied are engaged in antisocial behaviour”.
After the applicant received the house in Kilteragh, her partner, a known criminal who has a villa in Spain, moved in with her.
Limerick County Council’s decision to give her approval to buy a house under the affordable housing scheme, meant she could purchase the house in Kilteragh for a sum in the region of €165,000 when the same house was selling on the open market for around €216,000 saving her around €51,000.
