THE BUDGET FOR battling organised crime has been cut by more than half, the new Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has said.

Callinan said that the budget for Operation Anvil, which has targeted organised crime since 2005, would be reduced from €21 million to €10 million this year. However, he added that funding for specialist operations would be found where it was needed, RTÉ reports.

The commissioner said that the gardaí would be continuing to target dissident republican groups, who are responsible for a 70 per cent increase in attacks in Northern Ireland the last year. Speaking at garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park yesterday, Callinan added that the budget-cut would mean that investigators would have to be “more focused” in order to “continue to provide an effective intelligence-led policing service working within funding that is available to us”.

Callinan is due to meet with PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott within the next fortnight to organise a strategy to target groups such as Real IRA, Continuity IRA and Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Irish Times reports.