The Garda Commissioner has confirmed that Operation Anvil, set up to tackle organised crime in Dublin and other crime hot spots across the country, will not be wound down.
Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said more than €20 million had been set aside for the operation to date and insisted there was no question of its intelligence-led operations and investigations being wound down or cut back.
Commenting in the wake of two gang-related killings in the past five days, the commissioner said Operation Anvil was responsible for the seizure of more than 570 guns, 5000 arrests and the recovery of €13 million worth of property in the last two years.
Mr Murphy was responding to concerns raised by Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Charlie Flanagan, last week that the Garda security operation was "winding down".
Mr Flanagan criticised Brian Lenihan's "abject failure" to address the surge in serious violent crime, gangland criminals and antisocial behaviour and said "violent crime now represents a fundamental threat to the safety of our communities".
Two men in their late twenties were murdered in separate shootings between Thursday and Saturday last, but detectives have said they do not believe the incidents were related.
John Berney (29) was killed in Newcastle, Co Dublin, on Thursday night and Richie McCormack (29) was killed in Ronanstown, west Dublin, on Saturday night.
Both were shot dead by a gunman.
Mr McCormack, known to gardaí as a drug dealer and under investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau, was a member of a west Dublin crime gang that has been engaged in serious gun crime and drug dealing.
Gardaí suspect he was involved in the shooting dead of criminal Robbie O'Hanlon (25) on March 15th last year. He was shot three times in the head as he walked off a football pitch.
It is also understood he was a suspect in the shooting dead of another drug dealer who was killed at his home in Clondalkin in December 2001.