A major Garda security plan involving specialist armed units and the force's helicopters is to be put in place across Dublin in a bid to deter armed gangs from staging more hostage robberies.
The development comes as Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said a voluntary code of security procedures for the cash in transit sector was not working.
On Monday, €1.3 million was stolen by an armed gang in Carlow town after a 67-year-old Securicor worker and his wife were held hostage overnight in Lucan and Rathcoole, both Co Dublin.
Some private security companies now want substantial cash rewards to be offered to anybody with information on those behind major robberies and the kidnapping of their staff.
Details of the new Garda plan emerged last night after Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and a delegation of his senior officers held crisis talks with senior managers from the State's biggest security firms at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Rival cash-in-transit firms will now work together to co-ordinate deliveries to the same areas of the city at the same time. Policing will be increased in these "delivery zones" during periods of increased activity.
This will take the form of increased foot and mobile patrols along with armed escorts by the Army and plain-clothes detectives, including members of the Emergency Response Unit and National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Garda helicopters will also be deployed to monitor delivery zones. Other measures under consideration include plans for the crews of vans to regularly check in at Garda stations along their routes.
The new measures will be finalised and implemented by a new working group under the chairmanship of Chief Supt Pat Hogan, head of the Garda internal audit division.
Mr Conroy and deputy commissioner Fachtna Murphy outlined a number of the Garda's concerns about procedures in the cash-in-transit industry at yesterday's meetings. Sources said representatives from the companies insisted they would do all they could to end the kidnap robberies.
They are anxious that the robberies should be stopped before the situation in Northern Ireland, where there is an average of almost one "tiger robbery" a week, is replicated here. There have been 11 such robberies in the Republic over the past 20 months.
Mr McDowell has said he could not understand why private security firms do not transport large sums of money in dye boxes, which would render the cash useless if stolen. He is considering imposing a strict regime of compulsory security procedures on the sector.
He fears large sums of cash would fall into the hands of organised criminals who had seen the success of Monday's robbery and would engage in copycat attacks.
"I share the wonderment of the [ Garda] Commissioner as to how these offences are being successfully carried out against an industry that clearly is aware of the risks, has agreed to a voluntary code of conduct . . . and which seems to be missing elementary precautions," Mr McDowell said.
