An 'indictment' of McDowell's record

Reaction: Fine Gael says the latest crime figures show Michael McDowell's tenure as Minister for Justice has been a "total failure". Justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said the figures painted an unbelievably bleak picture of modern Ireland and were a "shocking indictment" of the Minister's performance.

The party said headline crime had increased 5 per cent over the past 12 months, drug dealing was up 26 per cent and murders were up 16 per cent over the same period.

The Central Statistics Office, which released the figures yesterday, focused on the figures for the third quarter of this year and the first nine months of this year, rather than the past 12 months. These time periods do not show significant overall increases in crime levels.

"Gangland criminals are stronger than ever and are laughing in the face of the Minister for Justice," said Mr O'Keeffe. "This week's massive drugs haul, the largest in the history of the State, was a commendable action by the gardaí, but it confirms that the country is awash with drugs.

"This must be tackled by a new State initiative to tackle drugs, involving all relevant Government departments, because current policies are clearly not working. It is clear to everyone except the Minister that his rhetoric and bombast are fooling no one, least of all the criminals."

Labour's justice spokesman Brendan Howlin said the figures demonstrated the need for more gardaí and better community policing to stamp out drugs offences, robberies, assaults and other crimes that remain at unacceptably high levels.

"Taken together with Garda crime figures released earlier this year, which similarly recorded no significant decrease in serious offences, it is clear that we are mired in the middle of a crime wave. The question arises therefore has the Government and the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, simply settled on an acceptable level of crime in Ireland?

"The Labour Party believes in reducing crime, not containing it. For that reason we recently proposed that a new system of community policing be introduced to communities around the country.

"Minister McDowell has to accept his current approach is not working. We need more gardaí on the ground, we need more community policing, we need a better detection rate and we need a serious and sustained campaign to target the criminal gangs."