Gardaí will have every support to bring teenager's killers to justice, Taoiseach pledges

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged that gardaí will have the resources to bring people to justice for the macabre murder of a young man whose body parts were found in Dublin.

Gardai are conducting an examination in Ballybough, Dublin, where human remains were discovered in a burnt out car. The discovery is being linked to the disappearance of a 17-year-old in Louth on Sunday night.

Gardai believe body parts found in a sports bag on Monday night may also be those of the missing teenager.

Speaking in Monaghan as he launched Fine Gael's election campaign, Mr Varadkar promised gardaí would be resourced to hunt down the killers. He also described the murder and events as “grotesque”, “gruesome” and “macabre”.

He said: “I have of course heard the news from Dublin and Drumcondra, that body parts have been found linked to what is no doubt a murder.

It's something that's really shocking. It's grotesque. It's gruesome, it's macabre.

"I spoke to Mr. Justice about it today. I understand that the remains will be identified later today. And that will allow the gardaí to pursue their inquiries.

“And you can be sure that the guards will have every support and every resource they need to bring the people that did this to justice.

"And I want to show the people of Drogheda, you know, Drogheda is a great town, the biggest town in Ireland. It has so much going for it. And I want to assure them that they will have the gardaí and the Government behind them in bringing whoever did this to justice.

“This year the garda budget is nearly €1.9 billion and that's the biggest budget for the gardaí ever. We reopened Templemore, we're recruiting gardaí.

"We have an armed response unit now in every region of the country, and we can build on that, because the gardaí will need more resources in the years ahead, even though they have record resources now.”