Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Yesterday's annual report to which Deputy Kenny refers sets out the statistics confirming the provisional headline crime figures which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform released in January. It shows an increase in headline crime of 2.7% last year compared with 2004.

The statistics also include non-headline crime — for the first time in the annual report — which increased by 12.2% in 2005. This covers several areas which I will go through if necessary. A significant part of the headline crime involved murders and manslaughter, the figure for which in 2005 was 58 as against 45 in 2004. There were reductions in 11 of the 25 headline areas and increases in 14. I have cited the figure for the significant increase in manslaughter. Aggregated sexual assaults were down 43%, robbery of cash goods in transit was down 27%, robbery from the person was down 23%, theft from the person was down 18%, possession of drugs for supply or sale was up 20%, and possession of firearms was up 16%.

With regard to traffic offences, because we now have a dedicated traffic corps of several hundred on the streets every day——

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