The first five weeks of the year "have witnessed the most unprecedented upsurge in murder and violence in the history of the modern State", the Fine Gael justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, claimed in the Dail.
Calling for a political response from the Minister for Justice, he said 10 people had been killed in five weeks, there had been 34 armed robberies, and the situation was "out of control". The Minister said that never had so many resources been put in to combating crime. There had been nine killings and detections were made in seven of them, Mr O'Donoghue said.