JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell has urged a clampdown on bail for repeat offenders as latest figures show murders, drug offences, thefts and violent robberies have all increased.

THE Government yesterday rejected an opposition offer to fast-track emergency anti-gun laws through the Dáil - insisting its flagship crime crackdown initiative would be in force by July.

MINISTER Noel Dempsey yesterday strongly stood over his refusal to allow controversial new fisheries legislation to include administrative as well as criminal sanctions.

Fine Gael is accusing the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell of trying to interfere with the independence of the judiciary by telling them how to deal with drink-driving cases.

SEX crimes, murders and gun offences jumped last year, according to official figures.

A DECISION to include cannabis possession in a new Garda cautioning scheme has been dramatically dropped.

Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe has called for court sitting hours to be increased in conjunction with the Government's planned moves to regulate legal fees.

TAXPAYERS forked out €250,000 for the Morris Tribunal to force a TD to name a whistle blower who had already made himself known to the inquiry, it was claimed last night.

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today insisted that the numbers of Gardaí on the streets would reach 14,000 by December of next year.

A NEW Government ministry dedicated to childcare and pension credits for stay-at-home mothers are among the recommendations of a new Oireachtas report released yesterday.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell wants the new DNA database to be more comprehensive than the one envisaged by the Law Reform Commission (LRC).

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell last night signalled a major offensive against importers and suppliers of illegal fireworks.

FIVE Donegal gardaí ordered to transfer to Dublin following stinging criticisms in Morris Tribunal reports have not moved, it emerged yesterday.

Fine Gael has criticised the Government over the waiting time for foreign adoptions.

The debate on anti-social behaviour must focus on more than just anti-social orders, according to Fine Gael.

SERIOUS crime has risen for the first time in two-and-a-half years, statistics published yesterday show.

Fine Gael is calling for protective vests to be made available to all gardaí following the stabbing of two officers in north Dublin late last night.

Harry McGee, Political Editor

THE first report of a tribunal into garda abuses in Co Donegal has still not been debated in the Dáil — 10 months after it was published.

SINN FÉIN was yesterday called on to co-operate fully with the tribunal of inquiry investigating allegations of collusion by gardaí in the 1989 IRA ambush of two senior RUC officers.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday admitted that the poor rate of conviction for rape cases posed "very serious cause for concern."

Opposition parties have criticised the manner in which proposed legislation giving gardai sweeping new powers was introduced in the Dáil.

TAXPAYERS will have to pay €4 million for a hotel which has been unoccupied since it was purchased by the State four-and-a-half years ago to be used as an asylum seeker centre.

THE value of the Mountjoy prison complex has been cut by up to 25% following a ruling by Dublin City Council.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell may be asked to appear before a powerful Oireachtas committee to explain why he approved paying 10 times the market value for the site of a new 1,000-bed super-prison to replace Mountjoy.

FEARS that the State's only known serial killers could soon be set free lessened yesterday as it is understood that British police still want to question Englishmen John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans about a number of unsolved sex offences in the Manchester area.

AN increased number of gardaí, more funding for child-care places and legal aid services and a plan to build a central criminal court complex are key priorities for Justice Minister Michael McDowell next year.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) is welcoming the decision to increase the upper age for entry to the force to 35.

NEW firearms offences and tougher jail terms are to be introduced by the Government to combat rising gun crime.

Fine Gael has claimed that there is no way the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, can meet his targets on Garda recruitment.

NON-GOVERNMENT foreign travel by TDs and senators has cost the taxpayer at least €1.25 million since June 2002, figures compiled by the Oireachtas have revealed.

RAPE, serious sex offences and gun crime have jumped in the first half of this year, official statistics show.

Fine Gael has called for a permanent High Court for the south of the country.

Gardaí are expected to begin pin-pointing the country's speeding blackspots in the coming months.

THE Government took its first steps yesterday in a planned crackdown on firearms.

Fine Gael has demanded to know if the cost of Garda resources to the May Day events and the visit of George W Bush will result in a cutback in manpower.

FINE GAEL TD John Deasy will not be prosecuted by the Office of Tobacco Control arising out of the smoking incident in the Dáil bar.

AT the funeral Mass of Máirín Lynch in Cork’s North Cathedral yesterday, an old friend flicked through a small photo album and fought back tears.

Fionnán Sheahan, Political Correspondent

OPPOSITION parties last night reacted with caution to Government proposals to begin impeachment proceedings against Judge Brian Curtin and called for further clarification on how the procedure will work.

MENTALLY-ILL inmates are being committed to prison because of a lack of beds in the State's only secure psychiatric hospital, a prison visiting committee has warned.

FIRST-TIME buyers saving for a home would receive €1 from the Government for every €3 they put aside under a deposit scheme proposed by Fine Gael.

FINE GAEL want juvenile criminals and released sex offenders to be electronically tagged under radical proposals to tackle crime.

THE Government yesterday discarded the concerns of a wide range of human rights, racism and refugee groups and announced it would hold the constitutional referendum on citizenship rights together with local and European elections.