The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has described funding to create a new armed Garda unit in Dublin as a ‘drop in the ocean’.

Yesterday, the government announced €5m will towards funding garda overtime and setting up a new armed support unit in the capital following two fatal gangland shootings.

The AGSI’s Deputy General Secretary, John Jacob, has said the new armed support unit in Dublin will take a number of weeks to get up and running.

“The Minister and the Commissioner haven’t said is you can’t actually take a uniformed guard off the street and give them a fire arm and expect them to go out and be experts.

“So what will happen now is, those 55 gardaí will be trained and it will take 13 weeks to train those gardaí, so when will they be available for policing?”