The Garda Commissioner has said he is concerned about the number of firearms, in particular handguns, that gardaí are required to licence because of recent court judgments.
Facthna Murphy said he had no power to issue guidelines to superintendents on the issue.
Mr Murphy said the problem was that while some gardaí were licensing dangerous weapons such as Glock pistols, other gardaí were seeking to take these weapons out of the hands of criminals.
He also said it would be no advantage to the gardaí to put the Witness Protection Programme on a statutory footing.
He said witness protection was a cultural issue and it was difficult for people to leave their homes and communities after 30 or 40 years.
The commissioner said the difficulty in solving gang crime was getting people to come forward with information in the face of fear and intimidation and getting the evidence to prosecute and convict.
