All the gun crime now is based around rival drug gangs scrapping over territory and so forth. The Gardai can't take them on because, let's be honest about this, the chances of someone armed with a wooden stick winning against someone with a sawn-off shotgun or a semi-automatic are pretty slim.

But what to do?

Simple: vending machines full of drugs.

They can be installed into pub toilets like condom machines, placed on the platforms of train stations, situated on the streets like those newspaper machines they have in the states and in the corridors of schools, social clubs and universities.

The government can ensure that top quality narcotics are brought in although if a dodgy batch of heroin wipes out a few junkies then who's going to cry about it?

This will earn so much extra money that perhaps then they'll be able to afford some guns and bullet proof vests for the police at which point you shut down the vending machines and let nature take its course.