Ahern promises crackdown on 'ruthless' gangs

A new breed of ruthless young criminals is responsible for the gang warfare plaguing our streets, Bertie Ahern warned today.

His comments came as Justice Minister Michael McDowell unveiled a series of measures aimed at clamping down on murderers.

The Taoiseach said: “There is a new breed coming up, very young as we have seen, and we now have to deal with these issues.

“We have to deal with a new level of young criminal who is quite vicious, quite extraordinarily ruthless.”

Mr Ahern was speaking in the Dáil a day after the dramatic collapse of a murder trial in which Liam Keane, 19, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Eric Leamy in Limerick in 2001.

Tonight Mr McDowell vowed to crack down on the criminals responsible for gangland murders.

He pledged an extra €2m to target organised crime over the next two months.

He also said anybody convicted of murder would serve 12 years rather than being let out after seven, and that gangland killings would result in sentences of 15 to 20 years.

Mr McDowell said: “What the Garda Commissioner is faced with is a group of people who have created a world of their own, in which nobody is willing to testify.”

Referring to yesterday’s case he said he would ensure that justice was not cheated. He said he was looking at the possibility that withdrawn witness statements could be used as evidence in trials.

“This story is not over,” he added.

Jurors must be given much better security and he is examining ways of giving them a better sense of protection.

Opposition parties attacked the Government after yesterday’s case collapsed.