Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I do not want to minimise the problem or sound complacent by quoting the figures I quoted in my initial reply, but the bottom line is that year on year — I am not saying one swallow makes a summer or that one year's figures are evidence of a serious regression — there has been a welcome reduction in the number of murders and offences involving weapons. It is also the case that the majority of unsolved murders are typically the result of internecine fighting between criminal gangs. The situation is not as bad as depicted by the Member opposite. The overarching figures on crime are extremely positive. If one takes a ten-year view of the crime statistics, the number of crimes committed per thousand is well down from a high of 27 or 28 crimes per 1,000 ten years ago to between 23 and 25 per 1,000 today. That is against a background of a rising population——

See this speech in context