THE standard charge for a contract killing was about £2,000, Mr Willie O'Dea (FF, Limerick East) said.
He said the rise in contract killings was linked to the greater availability of illegal firearms. The Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990, in so far as it set out to control the supply and distribution of guns, had not worked and illegal firearms had proliferated.
The Minister of State for Education, Mr Bernard Allen, assured the House every effort was being made by the Garda to bring perpetrators to justice.
A Sunday newspaper report of an individual involved in child sex prostitution in Dublin's north inner city was raised in an adjournment debate by Ms Liz O'Donnell, PD spokeswoman on justice.
The Minister of State, Mr Bernard Allen, said the Garda had no evidence which would suggest that vulnerable children were falling victim to prostitution.