GARDA COMMISSIONER Fachtna Murphy has pleaded with the public to help the force deal with the "scourge" of "crystal meth", which has higher rates of addiction and death than heroin.
Mr Murphy insisted there was "absolutely no cutback" in the Garda's €1.6 billion budget this year, but said senior officers were meeting "operational commanders out in the field to ensure there is prudent management of my budget over 12 months".
His comments were supported by Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, who stressed there would be "no diminution" in resources for frontline policing this year or next.
They were speaking at Templemore Garda training college in Co Tipperary, where Mr O'Dea reviewed a guard of honour and presented certificates to 286 new gardaí - 201 men and 85 women - who graduated yesterday.
Mr Murphy said he was pleased generally with trends in the latest crime statistics, but that "there are areas of concern particularly in relation to burglaries and thefts and quality of life issues, and I will be having my people concentrate on those".
In the wake of the seizure last week of a significant quantity of metamphetamine, known as crystal meth, he was gravely concerned about the danger that it posed.
"I want to ensure and my force will do everything possible to ensure that it doesn't creep into this country.
"It is my understanding from discussions with my counterparts over many, many years - and we've seen what happened in America in that regard - it is a very addictive drug and the mortality rate amongst addicts for meths, amphetamine and crystal meth is very high, worse than heroin, and that's saying something."
He added: "I am pleading with the public - nurses, doctors, teachers, parents, anyone who has information - to report it to gardaí, to ensure this scourge of a drug doesn't come into this jurisdiction."
Questioned about budgets, he insisted that "there is absolutely no cutback in my budget of €1.6 billion this year".
"Senior people, who run the finance for me and are accountable to me, are talking to operational commanders out in the field to ensure there is prudent management of my budget over 12 months," he added.
Mr O'Dea said there had been "considerable improvement" in crime figures, particularly in Limerick, even though organised crime was on the increase.
There are 615 gardaí in the Limerick division, "the highest in the history of the State", and Operation Platinum had resulted in a lot of firearms and drugs being seized.
"The police are really getting on top of it very well. So touch wood, the situation at the moment is relatively quiet."
Quite a few "of the major players involved in drugs-related feuds are away at the moment as a result of successful Garda detections" and "successful prosecutions in court", he said.
Asked about resources for the force, Mr O'Dea said there would be an increase of 1,100 in numbers of gardaí from the beginning of this year to the end of 2009.