Annual levels of violent crime and offences involving drugs increased significantly last year, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures released yesterday.
The number of child neglect, cruelty or abandonment offences also increased by 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of recorded rapes and burglaries in 2006 decreased. There was also a downward trend in the level of crime recorded in the last three months of the year when compared with the same period in 2005.
The figures reveal there were a total of 103,710 headline offences or main offences as classified and recorded by An Garda Síochána - in the State during 2006 - up 1.4 per cent overall when compared with 2005. This includes a 6.5 per cent rise in the number of recorded murders or manslaughters from 62 in 2005 to 66 in 2006, the highest level since the foundation of the State.
The number of assaults causing harm also increased by almost 21 per cent in the last three months of 2006, and 6.9 per cent overall.
Recorded drugs offences were up 14.5 per cent last year, including a 13.1 per cent increase in offences relating to the possession of drugs for sale or supply and a 58.1 per cent increase in offences covering the cultivation, manufacture or importation of drugs.
There was also a 27.3 per cent rise in the number of deception and false pretences offences. But the number in possession of firearms decreased by 3 per cent last year, with offences for discharging a firearm also decreasing by 4.8 per cent.
The figures show a significant decrease in the number of sexual offences recorded overall last year, down 3.1 per cent. Of these, recorded rapes of a female were down almost 8 per cent; unlawful carnal knowledge offences were down over 38 per cent; and sexual assaults were down 4 per cent.
In the last quarter of 2006 sexual offences overall rose by 4.2 per cent, while the number of offences for abandoning a child, child neglect or cruelty also rose by 46.2 per cent, and 10.4 per cent overall.
There was an overall decrease of 6.2 per cent in the number of burglaries recorded, although aggravated burglaries recorded an increase of 3.6 per cent last year. The level of abductions increased by 17.4 per cent in 2006, but in spite of a spate of "tiger" raids last year, robberies of cash or goods in transit were down by almost a third.
Robbery from the person was up almost 10 per cent, although robbery of an establishment or institution was down by 4.3 per cent.Of particular concern to the retail sector will be an increase of some 12 per cent in the level of theft from shops last year.
The number of offences of dangerous driving causing death or serious bodily harm, manslaughter (traffic fatality) decreased by 11.8 per cent in 2006, and by 66.7 per cent in the last three months of the year.
Yesterday's figures also compare recorded headline crime trends over the last three months of 2006 and the equivalent period in 2005.
The number of headline crimes actually decreased by 3.2 per cent during this time, they show. According to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has also reported a rise in detection rates last year from 35 per cent in 2005 to 40 per cent, a fact which he suggested had contributed to higher rates of recorded offences.