GRA conference - Crime lords seek gunmen to kill gardaí

IN their frontline role against crime, gardaí are regularly subjected to vicious assaults by mindless thugs, but there is a far more sinister element at work when members of the force become the target of contract killings involving professional hit-men.

More redolent of a TV thriller than the changing face of Ireland, this alarming scenario came to light at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) conference in Westport, Co Mayo, amid claims that intelligence showed crime bosses were seeking contract killers to target certain gardaí.

Reportedly, hit-men have been approached to find out if they would be willing, for a €10,000 fee, to shoot gardaí or fire shots at their homes. And given the vicious nature of gangland feuds in which a growing number of fatal shootings has taken place in a spate of ongoing turf wars for control of the drugs trade, such claims cannot be lightly dismissed.

As evidenced by the recent discovery of caches of arms, there can be no doubting the fact that criminals intent on murder would have little difficulty getting their hands on high-powered weapons and ready supplies of lethal ammunition.

Furthermore, now that terrorism has giving way to democracy in the North, criminal elements in the Republic would doubtless find it easy to hire an out-of-work ex-IRA hit-man with the aim of killing members of rival gangs or of intimidating known gardaí or members of their families.

Apparently, the litany of threats facing gardaí probing shooting incidents include death threats posted on blogs and bullets left as warnings on cars.

As far as the GRA is concerned, their members face a “real and present danger”. Garda management is aware of this scenario and the homes of gardaí under threat are monitored.

Adding to their woes, so dire is the condition of many garda stations that the association is demanding that the Office of Public Works (OPW) be removed from all work on those facilities. Instead, they want responsibility for refurbishment work to be taken over by the Department of Justice.

Complaints range from a leaking roof at New Ross to health and safety hazards in Dunmanway (after complaining for 27 years, gardaí were finally moved to rented accommodation); at Ballinhassig members of the force have been housed in a porto cabin for the past 22 years; so bad the condition of the station at Bailieboro they want it closed down.

Bizarrely, under OPW rules, the gardaí are debarred from changing a blown light bulb. If a bulb needs changing, a written request goes to OPW and, gardaí say, it can take six months to get it replaced. As well as fighting crime, they have to fight bureaucracy.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell is defending the indefensible when he underlines the Government’s commitment to improving garda stations, arguing that between 2005 and the end of this year €112m will be spent up-grading facilities.

In what promises to be a highly controversial move, the GRA want the names of gardaí investigating shooting incidents which involve senior criminals to be kept secret. They claim their names should not be published for fear they would be attacked.

Besides seeking to prevent the media publishing such names, they also oppose naming the investigators in open court. Instead, they want evidence to be given behind screens, in much the same way as in the North when terrorists were put on trial.

Whatever the merit of these arguments if lives are at risk, there can be no question of giving gardaí carte blanche anonymity in the fight against crime.