Commissioner Fachtna Murphy tonight insisted the Garda was not losing the fight against gangland criminals.
Mr Murphy told the Garda Representative Association (GRA) annual conference in Killarney he was greatly concerned over the alleged intimidation of recent Limerick murder victim Roy Collins’ family by "thugs".
But he was adamant senior Garda officers in the city were making substantial progress in an ongoing operation against increasingly ruthless gangs.
“An Garda Síochána will not lose the fight against organised criminality in this country; that’s our job, we’ve been doing it since 1922,” Mr Murphy said.
The commissioner said Limerick was a success story in terms of many criminal investigations.
“But there are a number of thugs, as somebody called them, there who are prepared to take on the State and the State will prevail in all these situations,” he said.
The Garda chief also vowed to work with the PSNI and other international law enforcement agencies against the increased threat from dissident republicans.
“Subversive terrorist activity, which dogged this island for so long, has again reared its head with the resultant deaths in Northern Ireland of two soldiers and a PSNI colleague,” he said. “My determination to face down this threat remains firm.”