Labour leader Pat Rabbitte challenged the Taoiseach to acknowledge that there is a crisis in policing and crime, in the wake of the latest murders of a major criminal figure and an apprentice plumber in Finglas, Dublin.
Mr Rabbitte said that the deaths of Martin Hyland and Anthony Campbell brought to 23 the number of gun deaths this year, "the highest in the history of the State".
Asking whether the Taoiseach acknowledged that drugs were driving the crime and if he accepted there was a crisis, he said that if Bertie Ahern did not accept this, then "how many more killings do there have to be before this Government acknowledges there is a crisis and puts the relevant measures in place?".
Mr Ahern, who described yesterday's murders and that of postmaster Alan Cunniffe last week as "utterly barbaric and senseless", said that "mainly due to wars going on between various gangs, we have gone from nine deaths [ in 2004] to 21 last year and 23 this year".
But he pointed out that hundreds of gardaí were involved in Operation Anvil, the ongoing investigation into criminal gangs, and more than 3,400 people had been arrested.
Some 55 detectives were involved in Operation Oak, a Garda intelligence operation, and "a large amount of the operation was in the targeting of the individual murdered today.
"Time and again we were highlighted about the individual and related activities. His name has come up in several of the serious incidents in the last year."
The Taoiseach added that Operation Oak was trying "to deal with him and a small group of others in a way that would be before the law and that would be dealt with properly".
He said that they could only hope that the gardaí would have better success than they have had. Gardaí were intensely involved between all the gangs, but "there's not that many of them". It was an "intricate web of activity right across the city", but did not involve huge numbers of people.
The gangs were well known, Mr Ahern said. "Every briefing I've heard for the last year or more, that individual was in it."
Mr Rabbitte said there had been 120 gun murders since the Coalition started in 1997, when the Taoiseach said crime would be his first priority.
The Minister for Justice "is ready at the drop of a hat to advise on any aspect of human affairs and yet this is the reality in his own portfolio".
He added: "When you think about that cliché uttered by your Minister for Justice when he said we had just experienced the last sting of the dying wasp - there's a swarm of wasps around since and this Minister doesn't seem to have any grasp of the reality of life in communities that are afflicted by the drugs menace."
The Labour leader said that "there is an attitude that while gangland is killing gangland, the rest of us put up with it, but the fear has been expressed so frequently that one of these days one of these gangland killings is going to involve an innocent citizen. And that's exactly what has happened today.
"A young apprentice was shot down in his place of work this morning, presumably casually, because he could have been a relevant witness to the crime."
Mr Ahern said that no stone would be left unturned in bringing the perpetrators to justice and a very senior, very experienced garda had been put in charge of the investigation.
