The key promise made by the Government was that people would feel safer in their homes and on the streets, a record on which the Government would be judged. Everybody stands for that kind of society. The latest figures published for headline crime, however, suggest a serious situation.

The reality is that crime is up and detection is down. Homicides are up from 98 in 2004 to 155 in 2005. Every week there are more than 1,000 thefts, amounting to 56,000 last year. In every one of the ten headline categories of crime the detection rate in 2005 was lower than in 2000 where similar figures are available. That means there is a lower detection rate of homicides, assaults, sexual offences, thefts, burglaries and robberies. There are ten categories within which to measure the Government's performance, amounting to ten failures.

Ten major failures.

Does the Taoiseach believe that his Government's fundamental commitment to making people feel safer in their homes and on the streets is being fulfilled to this point?

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——

The Taoiseach is joking.

——there has been a substantial increase in the detection of crime in this area. That is to be welcomed by all of us who wish to see an end to the carnage on the roads, whether caused by drink driving offences, insurance offences or vehicles having difficulties. Detection in all these categories has substantially increased. The figures differ very little.

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has asked me to clarify the figures in respect of firearms seized. The figures published yesterday in this category for 2005, if they stood, would show a substantial reduction over those for 2004. That would be surprising given the successes we heard about throughout 2005 under Operation Anvil, which was introduced that year. The Garda had difficulties with its system and will clarify its figures today.

This Government stated that it would continue to run a strong economy, last year creating more than 80,000 jobs.

Zero tolerance, that is what Government stated.

It stated it would continue to keep taxes down, build up infrastructure——

The Taoiseach's time is up.

We promised to put more gardaí on the street and give them more resources to deal with crime. We certainly are doing that.

I did not know that the Ceann Comhairle was a prophet but he said the Taoiseach's time is up.

It is all over for the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.

The Taoiseach missed that.

It is all over. Did the Minister hear that?

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism is more concerned with the mast in Kerry than many other things.

He promised zero tolerance when he was in Opposition.

The Taoiseach did not answer my question. He made a fundamental promise on behalf of his Government that people would feel safer in their homes and on the streets and that the Government would be judged on this. I have cited failure in ten categories in the nine years the Government has been in office. Is it not a fact that as a consequence of this our country is in many ways a much less civilised place in which to live? It is the responsibility of Government to deal with the issue of crime.

Will the Taoiseach explain why 500 gardaí are doing civilian jobs? Why have the gardaí not been given a world-class system of communication? Why is it that many must ring into Garda stations on their mobile telephones and sometimes travel to the scene of accidents in taxis? Will the Taoiseach accept that this is the responsibility of his Government? I have been pursuing the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, who is not present, who self-combusted over——

The Deputy's time is now concluded.

His time is coming.

——a challenge to his correctness but he has not self-combusted over murders, assaults, rapes or theft which have all increased under his jurisdiction. This reminds me of what Churchill said about US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, "I know of no other bull who brings his own china shop with him." Given the resources available to the Garda Síochána, is he not in a position to——

I remind the Deputy we are under a very strict time restraint and I ask him to conclude.

——set targets and achieve results? Will he address the question whether he thinks the people of this country feel safer in their homes and on the streets, as was his promise upon which he shall be judged and in respect of which the Ceann Comhairle is correct, the Taoiseach's time, if not up, is almost up?

More broken promises.

Deputy Kenny asked me whether we are giving the Garda Síochána the resources and the facilities, and the answer is that we are. This year we will have 14,000 gardaí. The Deputy raised the issue of the new digital phone system. I am unable to explain the reason that, when the Government granted approval for the system in 2002, a series of people within the Garda Síochána and various agencies and Departments have spent four years looking into it and looking out of it. I cannot explain it.

The Taoiseach is supposed to be in charge.

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption, please.

I do not go into the detail of the technology or how the system is operated, I provide the resources.

The Taoiseach should ask the Minister, Deputy Cullen, about technology.

Four years after the Government approved the system, it is now operational, but it should not have taken so long. We provided the resources and following a tendering process the system is now in place and available to the Garda Síochána, which is as good as any system in use anywhere in the world. That issue has been dealt with, but it should not have taken so long.

The Deputy referred to new Garda stations and Garda cars. We have a total of 14,000 gardaí.

We do not.

The budget has been increased from €600 million to €1.3 billion and we have provided for almost 3 million hours of Garda overtime. Deputy Kenny will agree that our population has increased from 3.5 million to 4.1 million. Every examination of the figures has shown that crime per thousand of the population is down. If the Deputy asks me whether I am happy that we are delivering on our promise to lower crime rates, I am happy the figures show a decrease in real terms.

The Taoiseach is in denial.

So there is no need to do anything.

Please, Deputy, I am answering your leader. I am not happy with the current figures but I am happy that we have dedicated gardaí who are out every day doing their best. I always resent that in this country we always seem to speak against ourselves. Our crime figures are lower now, pro rata, than ten years ago and lower than practically any other city in Europe. We have more gardaí than the equivalent anywhere except in Spain and Portugal, yet we try to talk ourselves down. This is one of the most popular countries for tourism.

I want to help the gardaí to beat the criminals, talk up their role, implement the legislation passed by this House and try to beat the remaining crime.

There seems to be a serious problem now.