Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy McCormack asked about the population issue. I do not like giving comparisons based on population figures because they can be meaningless, but the level of headline crime per capita is significantly lower than it was a decade ago. In 1995, with a population of 3.6 million people, there were 29 crimes per thousand of the population. The most recent figures show that with a population of 4.1 million, there were 25 crimes——

See this speech in context