Madam, - Once again we can see the Government's attitude to gangland crime bearing a bitter fruit. As long as they kill each other it's ok. But now an innocent young man has been killed. Of course if this had been a solicitor or a journalist going about their daily work Michael McDowell would be rightly outraged, but all he can say on this occasion is that it's a serious incident. I feel the Government should start taking responsibility for its inaction. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN DUNNE, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.
Madam, - If the murder of a young man in the most cowardly manner on the doorstep of a house in Dublin today (December 12th) is simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't enough to move this astoundingly out-of-touch Government into action and to make people think twice about voting for them again, then something has gone seriously wrong in Ireland. It has got to be time for the opposition politicians to call a spade a spade and to finally start holding this Government to account properly.
The first major step in the battle against drug crime has to be admitting the role the affluent middle-class play. It is because they never ever face taking responsibility for the drugs they use that there is such a high demand for them. That demand has in turn led to huge profits being made from their supply and sale.
We can only pray none of us ever have to witness the scene presented to the victim's boss when he returned and found his apprentice shot dead.
The Minister for Justice needs to explain what he is doing to make sure the Garda have the powers they need to arrest and charge the middle-class people whose unspeakable naivety and selfishness have directly resulted in such a tragic scene and that they use those powers without fear or favour. - Yours, etc,
DESMOND FitzGERALD, Canary Wharf, London.
Madam, - The latest killing of an innocent young man simply doing his job should be treated on a par with that of Veronica Guerin. If Michael McDowell applied the same vigour to dealing with criminal gangs as he did with hounding Sinn Féin and Republicans the country would be a far safer place. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY, Ushers Island, Dublin 8.