Labour leader Pat Rabbitte sharply attacked the Government's record on crime, claiming that gangland law now existed.
He said there were two more gangland murders in his Dublin South West constituency at the weekend, three gangland murders the previous weekend, with a total of 17 such murders so far this year.
"The Taoiseach will recall the fulminations of his colleague, Deputy [John] O'Donoghue, in Opposition, to the effect that if a letter went missing or a bicycle was stolen, the minister for justice of the day should resign."
Meanwhile, said Mr Rabbitte, a year ago, the current Minister, Michael McDowell, had said he was satisfied that a murder in Blanchardstown was what he called the "last sting of the dying wasp".
There was now, he added, "a veritable swarm of wasps, yet the Minister seems to think that his first duty is as a panellist in various television and radio studios".
Mr Rabbitte said that 75 murders, with the use of guns, had occurred between 1998 and 2004, but proceedings were taken in only 26 cases (35 per cent), and convictions were secured in only 12 cases (16 per cent).
"The Taoiseach will have heard the State Solicitor in Limerick last week explain that even where cases go to court, they fall asunder because witnesses are fearful and there is no adequate protection of witnesses."
Bertie Ahern said that Mr McDowell had briefings on Monday and yesterday with senior Garda officers, including the Garda Commissioner and Deputy Garda Commissioner on the double murder at the weekend. He himself had a briefing from the Deputy Garda Commissioner.
"All the indications are that this event was part of a vicious feud between two relatively small groups that are struggling to control drug distribution in areas of the west side of Dublin. These people deal in death and they will kill to protect their patch and recover their debts."
He said that the Garda had invested a large amount of resources and detective and surveillance time in Operation Anvil to target these gangs specifically.
"The Garda has been concentrating enormous resources in terms of manpower, overtime and intelligence towards suppressing the activities of what is a highly dangerous group of criminals in recent months.
"Its efforts have not been targeted exclusively at these two gangs, although it has concentrated on them significantly. Obviously, I cannot go through all the detail on which I have been briefed in this regard, and, in any event, much of it is well known."
Mr Ahern said there was now a drugs force in every Garda district, with 18,000 checkpoints, while several hundred firearms and more than 2,350 vehicles had been seized.
The Garda had more than 5,000 drug seizures, seven arrests for murders, 163 for serious robbery and several hundred for other forms of burglary.
However, it was no use saying that drug crime was not lucrative.
"It attracts certain types of persons. The consequence of their disagreements, unfortunately, is death because that is how they do their business. This is of concern to everyone, and the only way to tackle it is for the Garda to try to deal with the problem to the best of its ability, as it is doing."
