Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy today ordered increased armed Garda patrols and committed 20 extra officers to fight organised crim in the wake of five violent deaths since Friday.
The latest victim was gunned down in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) last night.
Gerard Byrne (25), was shot up to five times in the head just before 9pm outside the Mace supermarket on Lower Mayor Street in the IFSC. He was taken to the Mater Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He was originally from Ferryman's Crossing, not far from where he was shot, and was heavily involved in crime, according to Garda sources.
This morning Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said insisted that the Garda was adequately resourced to tackle the growing problem of gangland violence.
At lunchtime, a statement from the Garda Press Office said Commissioner Conroy had committed 20 extra officers to the Organised Crime unit of the National Bureau of the Criminal Investigation, bringing the total to more than 70.
The statement said the OCU would "continue to work closely with the Garda National Drugs Unit, the Special Detective Unit and other units within the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, focussing on well known individuals who are involved in organised crime which includes trafficking of illegal drugs and firearms."
Additional resources would allow a significant increase in armed Garda patrols and checkpoints, carried out by the Special Detective Unit Emergency Response Unit, in "key targeted areas", the statement said.
The Garda statement said "a community response" was also required to tackle organised crime.
"We are confident that there are a large number of people on the periphery of organised crime who are aware of facts and details which could and should be passed to the Gardai," the statement added.
Mr McDowell told RTÉ's Morning Irelandthat "nobody can draw any complacency or solace from the fact that some of [the victims of the shootings] are very serious criminals because innocent individuals are obviously in danger."
"We can't have a situation where there are people who are outlaws in a position to wage war upon each other and inflict collateral casualties on the rest of the community."
But Mr McDowell insisted that senior gardaí involved in fighting gangland crime have assured him that resources are not an issue. "They've agreed with me that they have all the resources that I can muster," he said.
Mr McDowell suggested that the upsurge in gangland activity could be a "by-product" of the recent successes of Operation Anvil and Operation Oak, which specifically targeted the organisation of drugs kingpin Martin Hyland, who was shot dead on Tuesday.
"The fact that they are dismantling the empires of these people and putting them under extreme pressure is leading to reactions among them. They suspect each other of informing, they find that their financial lines of supply have collapsed their drugs supplies have collapsed and in those situations they resort to threats among each other and they resort to retaliatory killings and that is what happened."
He said gardaí were putting known criminals under "acute pressure" to restrict their movements and prevent further bloodshed.
Operation Oak has resulted in the seizure of drugs worth an estimated €15 million and the arrest of 30 criminals who worked for Hyland or were associated with him. Many are facing serious criminal charges relating to drugs and weapons finds.
The Minister said he showed a list of associates of Hyland's to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday. "An alarming number of them are in fact at liberty out on bail pending trial or pending sentence," he said, adding that he intends to contact the judiciary to tighten bail conditions for those accused of possession of drugs and firearms.
"Where the gardaí say that they believe that a 'Mr Big' is likely to use his liberty to commit further serious offences, that must be given very heavy weight in the scales of justice in the bail procedure."
But the Minister said there were no quick-fix solutions. "I have to use the systems of the law, and the resources of the law and the executive, legislative and judicial arms of the state to coordinate them in a drive against these people."
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin today described the latest murders as "a terrible reminder of a culture of violence that is beginning to devastate areas of our city".
"There are some who feel that they have a right to callously disregard the dignity of human life - even of innocent bystanders - in order to foster their criminal interests," Dr Martin said. "The violence we have witnessed cannot be justified or tolerated whether the victims are known to be innocent or suspected of involvement in criminal activities.
"All of us must bring home to those who attempt to impose their "law" by means of fear that as a society we are prepared to show that we are not afraid of them."
Mr Byrne died in the Mater hospital last night shortly after being shot.
Local residents described hearing several loud shots and seeing two men in balaclavas speeding away in a car that was parked nearby.
Byrne was originally from Ferryman's Crossing, not far from where he was shot, and was heavily involved in crime, according to Garda sources. He had recently been implicated in a grenade attack on a property in the north inner city that was part of feud between well-known criminal families.
Byrne was arrested in Raheny, Dublin, some months ago when gardaí believed he was on his way to carry out a murder. He had also threatened a number of detectives attached to specialist Garda units that are involved in the fight against organised crime.
Four other people have been murdered in the last six days: postmaster Alan Cunniffe was shot dead in Kilkenny last Friday; Martin "Marlo" Hyland, a major drug dealer, and Anthony Campbell, an apprentice plumber (20) who happened to be working in the house where Hyland was staying, were shot in Finglas on Tuesday morning; and Dundalk man Aidan Myers was killed on Tuesday evening.