THE TAOISEACH HAS said gardaí and defence forces are doing everything in their power to prevent an attack in Ireland similar to the recent incident in Berlin.

12 people were killed when a 40-tonne lorry, driven by a Tunisian asylum seeker, rammed through a crowded Christmas market. Yesterday, the main suspect, Anis Amri was shot dead in a shootout with police in Milan.

This week Enda Kenny told reporters he hopes “nothing like that would happen here”.

However, he said “these things can happen”.

“You can ever rule anything out, but we like to think that in this country people are vigilant that we’re careful and that we’ll do everything we can to protect our citizens,” he said.

We are very careful in the alertness of our security forces – gardaí and defence forces – who make every effort possible to see that people are protected and that lives are protected in that regard.

The Taoiseach also responded to a call from leading Irish imam Dr Al-Qadri for the government to regulate mosques Islamic education in Ireland to prevent unqualified imams from encouraging radicalisation.

“We have freedom of religion and religious practices here and I don’t agree with the comment made there,” Kenny said.

“Obviously, we respect the right of every religion to preach to its own followers and we expected that preaching to be in accordance with peaceful means and the religious beliefs that people have.”