Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has denied suggestions that the formation of a new Garda unit to combat the Dublin gangland feuding was a "desperate measure".
In Belfast yesterday he said the purpose of the 50-strong unit was to "prevent any further bloodshed" and to bring the perpetrators of the recent gangland killings to justice.
He said: "Very considerable resources have already been put into this issue."
The Minister was commenting on Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy's decision yesterday to allocate an extra 50 officers to tackling organised crime through the creation of the new unit in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
Operating under the auspices of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the unit will be headed by Det Chief Supt Noel White. Its sole duties will be to target groups involved in organised crime. The unit will work with personnel employed on Operation Anvil, which was set up last May. It will also liaise with other law-enforcement divisions, including the Criminal Assets Bureau, Garda National Drug Unit, Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and Special Detective Unit.
Mr McDowell said: "An Garda Síochána under Commissioner Conroy has been engaging in Operation Anvil for a considerable time and it was his intention to prevent this outbreak of murderous violence between a small group of people who are trying to fight for control of the drugs trade in a smallish area of Dublin." He said the new unit was "not a desperate measure".
"The Government has put huge resources behind this battle. The commissioner is determined to win it and I believe that tomorrow from the Estimates that I'll be announcing then that the resolve of the Government in this matter is in no way in doubt. We are determined to beat this challenge to law and order." The Minister said the new unit was the commissioner's decision, not his.
Labour Party justice spokesman Joe Costello welcomed the announcement but said it was regrettable that it had taken almost 20 gangland-type killings so far this year "to jolt Minister McDowell out of his complacency". He said the unit should be supported by long-promised legislation that would make membership of a gang and gangland activity a criminal offence.
Earlier Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said Mr McDowell was "reaping the whirlwind" of his own failure to properly resource the Garda.
"This escalating gang war is reminiscent of Chicago in the 1930s," he said. Operation Anvil "clearly has not worked, principally because it needs to be an ongoing initiative to stamp out gangland crime, and not a short-term measure".