The Government is to consider drafting in the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) to investigate the assets of rival Limerick gangs whose long-running feud is believed to be connected to the abduction of two brothers in the city.
As tensions between the factions heightened in Limerick last night, the continuing search for the two missing men, Eddie and Kieran Ryan, yielded nothing. The two brothers were abducted at gunpoint by masked men in Limerick last Thursday night.
The Minister of State for Justice Mr Willie O'Dea told The Irish Times he believed drafting in the CAB might impact on the operations of the feuding gangs.
However, opposition parties said the crime problem in Limerick needed to be met with more gardaí and they criticised the Government for reneging on an election promise to recruit 2,000 extra officers. Mr O'Dea said the gangs had grown wealthy in recent years as a result of suspected criminal activity and with this wealth had been able to buy firearms and become established in the city. If the CAB turned its attention to these men, their positions might be undermined.
"CAB should not be seen only to be operating in the Pale," Mr O'Dea said. He added Garda efforts to bring known Limerick criminals to justice in recent years had been frustrated because "many of the crimes are so hard to prove".
However, Mr O'Dea stood by his assertion yesterday that he had offered Limerick gardaí more resources in the aftermath of the killing of nightclub doorman Mr Brian Fitzgerald in the city late last year.
The offer of extra resources was never taken up, he said. The Limerick branch of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has complained that manpower is so low there are often not enough gardaí to answer emergency calls. Fine Gael's spokesman on justice, Mr John Deasy, said, "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what the problem is." More gardaí were badly needed and the Government should not renege on its election promise to recruit 2,000 extra officers to the force, he said.
Labour justice spokesman Mr Joe Costello was also critical of the capping of Garda numbers.
Leadership from the Government was now needed to tackle crime spots such as Limerick, he said.