The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said yesterday that new crime statistics meant Ireland had one of the lowest homicide rates in Europe.
He pointed out that the total number of homicides last year, 45, was the lowest for 10 years.
The highest numbers were recorded in 2001 and 2002, both of which saw 58 people unlawfully killed.
He was speaking at a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of work on new facilities to expand the Garda training centre at Templemore, Co Tipperary.
Mr McDowell also said he would invite his critics, who had doubted that the Garda recruitment could be done in the promised time-frame, to the opening of the new building.
On the crime figures for 2004, the Minister said only four people died in gangland killings last year, a dramatic reduction on previous years. Six non-nationals were victims of violent deaths.
Every murder was a tragedy, affecting someone's son or someone's loved one, he said.
"Immigrants are very vulnerable. They don't have people looking out for them," he said, referring to the figures. "I am absolutely sure of one thing, everyone's death is seen as of equal importance to the Garda Síochána."
Referring to the fall in gangland deaths, he said the Garda had been very successful in dealing with the activities of gangs in west Dublin and Limerick, and the detection rate was high.
Regarding the new training facilities, he said the new building would be built around a three-storey central hall.
The building will house a shop, a café, a library, study rooms, a fitness assessment and medical area and offices, he said. This will allow extra classrooms to be provided in the existing complex.
Mr McDowell said there were more than 10,500 applications to join the force before December 17th last. This compared with 6,800 in 2003 and followed the decision to raise the age limit to 35.
In each quarter over the next three years about 270 candidates would be taken into the college, allowing for a force of 14,000, including untrained recruits, by 2006.
When the force had reached this number, the outsourcing of training and other activities for new recruits would cease, and this work would be reintegrated into the Templemore complex.