Tackling gangland crime is top of the Government's agenda, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil today.
Mr Ahern said the gardai were working hard but when they attempt to arrest gang leaders, "they get absolutely no help from many of the people they are trying to protect and who want to continue in their criminal ways".
Answering questions from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on what the Government was doing about the recent spate of murders across the State, Mr Ahern said: "We as a Government have no higher priority for doing what we can to bringing this cycle of killings to an end.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Mr Kenny had posed the question: "Who's in charge of our streets, Taoiseach. Is it the Government or the gunmen?"
He also said his party would support Government measures to tackle serious crime and asked for firm details of the extra resources announced last week by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan.
And he particularly wanted to know how many new officers would be dedicated to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and would they be arresting "drug pushers visible on street corners".
Mr Ahern said smaller scale drug dealers were now becoming targeted by the CAB and other gardai.
"We are providing the agencies of the criminal justice system with both the financial resources that they need and the legislative framework that they require to tackle this issue," Mr Ahern said.
The Garda budget had increased by over €500 million with the cost of overtime more than doubling in the past five years.
Almost 1,400 vehicles had been bought and the process was continuing. The new digital radio system would also be introduced over the next two years and a computerised incident recording system would automate work being done manually at present.
Computerised ballistic, fingerprinting and number plate identification systems would be implemented in the short term, Mr Ahern said.
An extra 4,000 gardai will have been recruited over a 10-year period, he added.
Despite Opposition calls for the Witness Protection Programme to be put on a statutory footing, Mr Ahern said Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy did not see any benefit to doing so.