One of the country’s most senior gardaí says Garda numbers have hit ‘rock bottom’ in Dublin.

There are almost 900 fewer officers in the Capital since 2009 - a decrease of around 20%.

It comes as gardaí try and deal with the ongoing gangland feud which has claimed 14 lives.

The latest victim - Derek Coakley Hutch - was shot dead at the weekend.

Speaking at Dublin City’s Joint Policing Committee, Pat Leahy - the Assistant Commissioner for Dublin - explained: "We've hit rock bottom now at this point in time.

"That's where we're at the moment. Yes, it has been a challenging time for us, but we expect now that coming into the next six to twelve months that that will change for us."

He added: "We really want to see people going back into community policing. We want to reinforce our community policing units and increase them substantially." 

He added that officers are putting ongoing pressure on those involved in the ongoing gangland dispute, suggesting: "These people are not as comfortable as they were when this started. They're probably at a point now where they're ruing the day that they actually got into this".