Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister not accept this is a damning independent, objective assessment of the state of crime in this country? Does the Minister blush, or is he capable of doing so, when he sees a headline in a national newspaper, The Sunday Times, which states "Ireland has worst crime rates in EU"? Does he agree the survey confirms the very high risk of crime in Ireland — the highest in the EU? With regard to the rates of crime, does he not worry when he sees we have the highest level of assaults — fourth in the EU, with 2.5% as opposed to 1% average — the highest level of sexual assaults, the highest rate of robberies and so on?

The Minister raised the issue of methodology, but the methodology was the same for other countries as for us. Is he not worried about this outcome? It confirms only what people know already.

There is an even more disturbing aspect, namely, that the survey confirms that significant numbers of crimes are not reported thereby confirming a hidden wedge of crime exists. At this late stage in his career as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, will the Minister come out of denial and accept we have a horrendous level of crime? There is no hope of salvation for the Minister or no way of dealing with the problem unless he accepts its enormous extent. Will he acknowledge now the serious state of the problem?

The Minister has three months left of his 60 months in office. Will he even acknowledge the homicide rate last year was the highest in the history of the State? Will his legacy leave any measure that will leave an impact? Does he accept there is a problem and is there anything he can do now in his last few months that will have an effect, rather than just leave wishful plans for the next Government?

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