Garda numbers have increased in the Dublin region by only two during 2005, Fine Gael has claimed.
The party said that, based on figures provided by the Department of Justice, there were 3,742 gardaí in the capital last year, just two more than the previous year.
Fine Gael finance spokesman and Dublin North Central TD Richard Bruton said the increase of 200 in the number of gardaí in the capital since 2000 was totally insufficient for the city region, which stretches from Bray to Santry.
"Over a five-year period there was just a 1 per cent increase each year in Garda numbers," he said. "This is at a time of rapidly growing population numbers, increasing social order problems and increasing crime rates."
He said that between 2000 and 2005, total recorded crime grew by 18.5 per cent.
The number of homicides in the same period grew by 300 per cent to 72, Mr Bruton said, while serious assaults were up from 634 to 1,500. The figures were collated from a series of parliamentary questions to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, Mr Bruton said.
He said they also showed there was a wide variation in detection rates across divisions in Dublin.
In the 2000-2005 period, 65 per cent of assaults were undetected in Bray, compared to 21 per cent in Santry, according to Mr Bruton.
"On the face of it, there is a lot to be learnt by the gardaí from assessing best practice policing methods that are being undertaken in different parts of the city," he said.
The Minister for Justice has previously said the target of increasing the number of gardaí from 12,000 to 14,000 would be reached by the end of 2007. A new recruitment campaign for up to 2,000 gardaí began last year.