Promised amending legislation on the intimidation of witnesses will be introduced in the "very, very, very near future", the Minister for Justice promised after Opposition concern about the latest attack on a key witness.

Mr O'Donoghue said he could not give a specific date "but I can state categorically that the legislation will be produced at the earliest possible opportunity, and it will be circulating very, very shortly".

Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, said when the House discussed the reduction of charges after the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, "the clear message from the case was that intimidation works, that Intimidation Rules OK and that there would be further repeats of this.

"Unfortunately our worst fears have been borne out with the attempted assassination of one of the key witnesses in a manslaughter charge." There was no doubt but that there would be "a repeat of the intimidation of witnesses unless the legislation is put in place as a matter of urgency".

The Labour Party's justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, said the Minister had promised legislation on the intimidation of witnesses. That would be introduced under the Criminal Justice Amendment No 2 Bill, 1997, "which is languishing here since it completed committee on October 21st last".

He believed that because the issue was so important it would be better that "we should be seen quite clearly to protect witnesses". This package could be brought in as a special piece of legislation which could be enacted speedily with the co-operation of the Opposition.

He was saying this "in the light of yet another murder today where there was a genuine concern about the breakdown of law and order".

Mr O'Donoghue said the legislation could be done more expeditiously by recommitting the Criminal Justice Bill rather than creating a new Bill.

His promised legislation would also include witnesses being able to give video-link evidence and making it an offence to try and locate witnesses who had been relocated under the programme.

The Minister pointed out that they obviously had to put in as many safeguards as possible. That was why he introduced the witness protection programme. "It was a recognition that Irish society was as amenable to the threat of organised crime as any other society and there was a necessity to introduce a programme of this kind."

It was working well and indeed it was true that several high-profile cases had demonstrated the lengths to which members of organised criminal groups would go frustrate the due process of law.

It was also true that the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau and the expertise of the National Bureau of Fraud investigation would inevitably increase the number of cases which might involve the need for witness protection.

That was why a dedicated witness security unit had been established in Garda headquarters and that was under the general control and direction of the Deputy Commissioner, crime and security branch, to enhance the arrangements made by the Garda to protect witnesses in exceptional circumstances, and specific funding of £250,000 was provided.

Mr O'Donoghue said that in Det Garda McCabe's case, two of the witnesses who did not give evidence were related to one of the persons charged. Another individual was the person to whom the people convicted of Det Garda McCabe's killing allegedly returned after the killing.

"But irrespective of how much legislation one might have and how well it is enforced we are dealing very often with insidious forces and they are to say the least quite difficult."

He said the Garda had had great success in recent times in tackling criminal organisations. But in the final analysis it was "not beyond the bounds of possibility that the best of laws and the best of enforcement does sometimes fail to trap the perpetrators of vile acts".