The Taoiseach yesterday defended the Government's record on crime-prevention in the face of strong Opposition criticism.

Mr Ahern said that almost €1 billion was being spent in that area this year, and outlined a range of legislative initiatives being taken. "Of course, there is crime. There is too much crime. That is why we have continued to strengthen our law."

The Government, he added, would build two new modern prisons, while Garda numbers had been substantially increased. "We have set up numerous special units within the Garda. We have invested in reform of the prison system."

He added that the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, had been outlining in recent days his thinking on the issues in preparation for a new Criminal Justice Bill to be published during the Easter recess.

Mr Ahern expressed sympathy with the relatives of Ms Joan Casey who was murdered early on Saturday in Tallaght in west Dublin.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said that in 2002, 105,000 crimes were committed in the State, with 11 murders so far this year, culminating in the savage murder in Tallaght.

"Is it not a fact that the streets of this country are more like the streets of Dodge City in 1880 than they are of Ireland in 2004?"

He said Mr McDowell, had promised 2,000 extra gardaí, two new prisons and a landbridge, a gun amnesty and mandatory sentences for gun offences.

"I am not sure what tablets the Minister was taking, but there was a clear commitment in the programme for government for the appointment of 2,000 extra gardaí which was then abandoned."

He asked if it was all "a whim of the Minister for Justice just like some summertime Santa Claus".

The credibility of the Government relating to crime was in shreds and the announcements by the Minister for Justice, apparently off the top of his head, had no basis in terms of Government decisions, he added.

Challenging Mr Ahern to say if Mr McDowell's announcement was the restoration of an original proposal, Mr Kenny asked if "certain members were afflicted by the selective amnesia that has struck certain former ministers in Fianna Fáil and indeed some current members also".

The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said people did not feel very safe in his constituency, "where a grandmother, at 6.20 in the morning, can be murdered in her bedroom".

He added that there were 163 gardaí in the Tallaght area for 90,000 people, whereas there were 400 gardaí in Limerick for a smaller population.

Divisional status had been granted to Tallaght by the Rainbow minister for justice, Ms Nora Owen, in 1997, but seven years later not one aspect of it had been implemented on the bogus pretext that there was not adequate accommodation available, he added.