The Labour Party has claimed that Dublin city centre is more like East LA than the present capital of the EU, after a survey showed that 80% of the capital's population are scared to walk the streets at night.
The survey was carried out by MRBI for the Irish Mirror newspaper.
According to Labour's Justice Spokesman, Joe Costello, the survey shows a 'frightening' level of muggings, thefts and assaults on a daily basis in Dublin.
Deputy Costello said the figures must act as a wake-up call to a Government that still has not recruited the 2,000 extra gardaí it promised during the general election campaign.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has claimed that the survey shows that the Government has failed to protect people from thugs.
In the Dáil, Deputy Kenny said the failure to provide extra gardaí was 'clearly another broken promise of this Government'.
The Minister for Defence, Michael Smith, said the promise to provide 2,000 extra gardaí was over the full lifetime of the Government.
