Government high on rhetoric while drug lords kill for control of streets

WE ARE in a sorry state when we need armed gardaí to patrol the streets of Limerick and hardly a day passes without a murder somewhere in the country.

The Government has been trying to pull the wool over our eyes with a combination of its own self-deception, political opportunism and cynical indifference.

On coming to power in 1997, this Government promised to tackle serious crime, but then effectively ignored the inevitable implications of so-called joyriding.