Serious crime has risen by 12 per cent since the Fianna Fail/PD Government took office, according to Fine Gael.
The party was responding to provisional Garda figures released by the Minister for Justice this evening which show crime levels down by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2005.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said although the provisional crime figures show a welcome reduction in serious crime, the figures have been "unacceptably high" in recent years and were still much higher than when the Government first took office in 1997.
"On an annualised basis, the figures for the first quarter of 2005 will come to almost 95,000 incidences of serious crime. This is a rise of 12% from the level of 85,000 in 1998, the first full year in government for the coalition," Mr O'Keeffe said.
"Justice Minister Michael McDowell has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to reach the lower crime levels established by the Rainbow government. And his latest comments on recruiting an extra 2,000 Gardaí are barely credible when only 58 extra Gardaí joined the force in 2004.
"Furthermore, there was a significant increase in robberies from establishments/institutions in the first quarter of 2005, from 282 to 358. This is particularly worrying, as is the substantial increase in drug-related offences."
The Labour Party spokesman on justice Joe Costello said the provisional crime figures told "only part of the story".
"These figures do not reflect the reality of the fact that within the past month we have seen armed gangs walk away with almost €5m in two the biggest armed robberies in the history of the state - robberies in which workers and their families were terrorised and put in fear of their lives. Nobody has yet been charged with either of these crimes and none of the stolen money has been recovered," Mr Costello said.
"There is also an element of statistical manipulation in some of these figures. For instance the Minister in his statement claims that the number of murder and manslaughter is down by 25 per cent.
"In fact the number of murders remains at exactly the same level as in 2004, while the only decrease shown is in respect of cases of manslaughter which fell from 4 to 1. We have seen in this city within the past ten days the ease with which criminals have access to firearms and their willingness to use them."
"These figures relate to only the more serious crimes and, to that extent, they say nothing about the plague of anti-social behaviour that is making life a misery in many areas, particularly parts of urban Ireland.
"Acts of vandalism, intimidation, assault and abuse - often left unreported because of a lack of confidence in the Gardai - are ravaging communities and destroying the quality of life for decent families.
"Dealing with anti-social activity requires a range of measures among which are a significant increase in Garda presence on the ground and an urgent expansion of the community policing programme. Minister McDowell has spectacularly failed to deliver in both of these areas."