Gardai seized drugs and criminal assets and instigated tax demands for alleged criminal earnings to a total value of £109.3 million last year, a Garda conference has been told.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation's specialist Money Laundering Unit also began investigations into 1,000 suspicious financial transactions during the year.
The figures were given to the conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Cork by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Walsh, who was standing in for the annual ministerial address to the conference for the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who is in Belfast for the political negotiations.
Mr Walsh said the Government was committed to tackling the scourge of organised crime, particularly drug-trafficking.
Mr Walsh said Mr O'Donoghue was pressing ahead with his Bill that will provide a mandatory 10-year sentence for anyone caught with drugs worth more than £10,000.
He said that during 1998 the Criminal Assets Bureau had frozen criminal assets worth £4.5 million and demanded tax payments and interest of £10.8 million.
The National Drugs Unit, in conjunction with local drug units and customs, had seized drugs with a "notional value" in excess of £94 million.
He added: "Members of the force are key actors in the Government's multi-agency response to the drugs problem and have a vital part in the implementation of initiatives at national and local level."
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, addressing the delegates later, congratulated the CAB, drugs and fraud officers and also singled out for praise the officers who had participated in the investigations into the murders of the journalist Veronica Guerin and Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Commenting on media coverage of crime in Ireland he said reporting was important in crime prevention and it could help in creating a framework for political discourse and action.
He said of the media reports on the deaths of Ms Guerin and Det Garda McCabe, "history will show an indebtedness to the media for report on events".
However, he pointed out that Ireland has a low crime rate, yet members of the public may still have a fear of crime "which is statistically out of proportion to the actual risk they run. He added: "The graphic detail reported of a crime scene can be perceived in a personalised way which contributes to an increased apprehension for some people."
He went on: "The danger in this is that a partially informed public opinion may clamour for crime prevention or detection measures which the situation may not require or which deeper consideration would show to be ineffective. This type of reaction can be wasteful of resources and/or give rise to expectations of success which will not be met." An emotive debate of the "heads should roll" type was not always constructive.