McDowell urges joined-up approach to gun crime

Every arm of the State must pull together to ensure the rule of law prevails against spiralling gun crime, the Minister for Justice said today.

Amid growing pressure after five people were murdered in six days, Tánaiste Michael McDowell admitted innocent people were being put in danger.

In the latest attack, well-known criminal Gerard Byrne, 25, was gunned down outside the Mace supermarket in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin shortly before 9pm last night.

“I believe the very fact that some of these people are engaged in criminality does not in any sense deprive the situation of seriousness, nobody can draw any complacency or solace from the fact that some of these people are very serious criminals because innocent people are obviously in danger. We had the experience the other day of Anthony Campbell being shot simply because he was a person who saw what happened,” Mr McDowell said.

“That could have happened last night if the same situation had taken place.”

Byrne, who was originally from nearby Ferryman’s Crossing in inner city Dublin, was believed to have been heavily involved in armed robberies. He was arrested in Raheny a number of months ago by gardaí who believed he was on his way to carry out a murder.

Tuesday saw the fatal double shooting of drug baron Marlo Hyland in Scribblestown Park in Finglas, and apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell who was working in the house at the same time.

The killing of the innocent bystander was condemned by his family who banded the gunmen scum.

On Tuesday evening, Aidan Myers, 37, was killed outside Dundalk and last Friday postmaster Alan Cunniffe was shot in Kilkenny.

Amid the opposition party’s call for action, Mr McDowell said: “There isn’t some quick fix solution, I can’t put the army on the streets as some people have suggested that wouldn’t achieve anything.”

He added: “I have to use the systems of law, the resources of the law and the executive, legislative and judicial arms of the state to co-ordinate them in a drive against these people.”

Mr McDowell said the growing murder rate could not be attributed to a lack of garda resources.

Joe Costello, the Labour Party TD, said there was a danger of the situation spinning out of control unless the Government gets a proper grip on the situation.

He said it was time for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to take personal charge of the situation before more lives are lost.

Mr McDowell said the vicious murders were partly a by-product of the success of the Garda Operation Oak.

“Operation Oak which targeted all the people around Martin Hyland was very successful, a massive number of arrests occurred among his circle of associates and one of the by-products of that was he lost his control, he lost the capacity to run a reign of terror among his associates and in the light of that changed state of affairs his own life became in danger,” he said.

“The fact they are dismantling the empire of these people and putting them under extreme pressure is leading to reaction among them, they suspect each other of informing, they find that their financial lines of supplies have collapsed, their drug lines have collapsed. In those circumstances they resort to threats to one another and those threats give rise to retaliatory killings, that is what happens.”

He said garda were escalating their search tactics to put criminals under acute pressure and restrict their capacity to move freely.

“I yesterday gave to the Taoiseach a list of associates of and people in the circle of the victim of Tuesday’s killing, Mr Hyland, I showed the Taoiseach a list of where they were now and an alarming number of them are at liberty on bail pending trial and pending sentence. It is my intention to contact the judiciary to ask for a special bail list to be established for Section 15 and 15A cases, these are possession of drugs and possession of firearms,” he said.

Mr McDowell told RTE Radio the Bail Laws were changed through a referendum to allow evidence be given in court about the propensity of people to commit serious offences.

“Where the gardaí say that they believe a Mr Big is likely to use his liberty to commit further serious offences that that must be given a very very serious weight in this scales of justice,” he said.