Gangs have more resources than Gardaí – McAuliffe

Published on: 18 January 2016


Fianna Fáil Press Office
Cllr Paul McAuliffe
Dublin North-West

18 January 2016

Gangs have more resources than Gardaí – McAuliffe

Fianna Fáil leader on Dublin City Council Paul McAuliffe told the Ard Fheis last weekend that criminal gangs in Dublin have more resources than Gardaí. The Dublin North West candidate said: “Last year in Dublin city we had more than 600 incidents of crime involving a firearm or an offensive weapon.  When you hear these incidents reported on the news, you we can allow yourself to imagine they happen somewhere else, somewhere apart. Somewhere only gangland criminals hang out. Somewhere in a Love/Hate episode.

“But they happen in real communities, on streets where I walk my children, where our children go to school, where our neighbours do their shopping.

“In Dublin North West and across our capital we have seen guns being used not just in gangland murders but increasingly in burglary, muggings and in drunken disputes. In one local incident a man brandishing a gun terrorised those praying in a church as he sought to rob them.

“This is no TV series, I love my community and I hate the criminals who seek to pull it apart, who tarnish the names of the areas in which we live.

“Dublin City needs the Fianna Fáil proposed dedicated garda unit to tackle gun crime. Shootings in Ballymun, Drumcondra, Glasnevin and Finglas in recent times have shaken the confidence of people who live there. We need to remove more guns from our streets, and give Gardai the resources to do that job.

“How have we reached a situation in 2016 where gangs have more resources that Gardaí?

“Where Gardaí pursue criminals in standard family salon cars, where they use their own mobile phones and type statements on their own laptops. Where the force has decreased by over 2,500 members in the past five years.

“Where Fine Gael, the alleged party of Law and Order has undermined the Garda Síochana so much that the Taoiseach thinks nothing of dispatching a civil servant to sack the Garda Commissioner in his home.

“Where they have closed Garda stations at the heart of our communities, Gardaí at Stations like Whitehall and Santry which has seen closure and reduced hours. Fianna Fáil has a track record of supporting the Gardaí in Government. We have done it in the past and given the opportunity we will do it again. In government we will establish a dedicated public order unit and increase the force by 1500 members.

-ENDS-

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