Convictions need ed, not new laws
Fine Gael is sceptical on FF proposals
THE horrific circumstances of Keane Mulready-Woods’s murder ‘must be seen as a line in the sand’ in the fight against gangland crime, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said in Drogheda yesterday.
Gardaí yesterday confirmed that a decapitated head found in a burned-out car in Ballybough, northeast Dublin, is that of the 17-year-old.
The rest of his remains were dumped in Coolock, north Dublin this week, leading to revulsion across the country.
Speaking yesterday in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government was 100% behind the people of the town and was going to set up crime task forces in six or seven towns across the country, including Drogheda. He said he could not yet name the other towns.
‘One thing that I want to do if I am re-elected as Taoiseach is to take the approach that we’ve used in Dublin’s northeast inner city where we’ve helped to really improve things... That hasn’t solved all the problems in the northeast inner city by any means, but I do think it has made a difference,’ he said.
He urged anyone with information about the Drogheda feud to contact gardaí, and added: ‘We need evidence, we need information, and I really want to encourage people who have information to come forward and they will be protected if they do so.’
However, speaking a few hours after his hour-long meeting with Minister Flanagan and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, Mr Varadkar said there was no need for new laws to tackle the gangland problem.
‘Certainly for me, talking to gardaí, and they’re the ones who know best, you know they say to me that they have adequate laws, we don’t need a new law against murder or against drug dealing or a new law against a criminal organisation, because those things are already against the law – what we need is convictions.’
Mr Varadkar said part of the discussions with the Garda Commissioner related to additional resources and ‘getting the CCTV in the town working again’.
Fianna Fáil’s Jim O Callaghan has described the murder of 17year-old Keane Mulready-Woods as a ‘turning point’.
He has suggested that legislation be expanded to ‘enable gardaí to bring prosecutions on the grounds if there is a belief of the chief superintendent’.
According to Mr O’Callaghan, the last piece of legislation to deal with gangland activities was introduced in 2009, when the Criminal Justice Act 2006 was amended.
‘I think we have an obligation to try and bring forth proposals,’ said Mr O’Callaghan.
Mr Flanagan moved against an extension of the Offences Against The State Act to allow easier convictions of gangland criminals. He said: ‘On an annual basis this special power form of legislation has to be approved... at no stage has any issue been raised of the type that Fianna Fáil are now raising; this is ill-thought-out. I will examine the matter, if it’s workable and constitutional we can have a look at it, but this isn’t the first time these questions have been asked.’
‘We need evidence and information’