Minister for Justice Michael McDowell claimed yesterday's provisional headline crime figures were "good, all things considered", with figures for the last nine months of 2006 showing the trend was in the "right direction".
However, Opposition politicians said they showed that violent crime levels have increased significantly since Mr McDowell took over as Minister.
Fine Gael said the figures showed that murder is up 43 per cent, discharge of firearms offences up 39 per cent, and rape is up 25 per cent since Mr McDowell's first full year as Minister in 2003. The Labour Party said Mr McDowell has "lost the battle with crime".
Speaking to reporters at Arbour Hill Prison yesterday, Mr McDowell praised the efforts of gardaí to tackle crime.
"For the last three quarters of 2006, the trend was in the right direction," he said. "People are saying they're losing the battle against crime. They're not, these figures show that they have over the last nine months made very significant improvements."
"We're an increasingly urbanised country, with a growing population, I think we have to acknowledge that the amount of crime per head of the population has been declining in recent times.
"One murder is one murder too much, and one homicide is one homicide too much.
"An Garda Síochána are battling to contain the drug and gun culture, and I think they have made significant gains."
Jim O'Keeffe TD, Fine Gael spokesman on justice, said 2006 will be remembered as the year of the gangster, with violent criminals "acting with virtual impunity and Fianna Fáil and PD Ministers seemingly helpless in their response."
"Headline crime has increased again this year and is now at its highest level for four years, with 103,710 incidents in 2006. Headline crime is running consistently at more than 100,000 incidents every year," he said. "Meanwhile, serious criminals are constantly being released on bail."
Brendan Howlin, Labour Party spokesman on justice, said the strategy adopted by Mr McDowell and the Government is "not working".
"While the Minister has promised plan after plan to tackle these crimes, the simple fact remains that increasing the number of visible gardaí on the street would both deter criminals and reassure the public," he said.
Ciarán Cuffe, Green Party spokesman on justice, reiterated his party's recent calls for the creation of a UK-style agency to combat organised crime.
Commenting on the figures, the Rape Crisis Network Ireland underlined that the rate of detection of sexual offences has been dropping consistently since 2000.
"We have seen no evidence to suggest this trend is reversed in recent years," it said.