Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said he believes anti-immigration sentiment is partly responsible for an 11% increase in arson offences.
The increase is noted in crime figures released by the Central Statistics Office which compare recorded statistics in the year to the end of March with the previous 12 months.
Commissioner Harris said that anti-immigration sentiment is "certainly" out there.
"I do think that it is the motivation for some of the arson attacks that we have seen," he said.
"I cannot say the complete rise in our figures is down to those incidents but, certainly, that has been a driver for the increase we have seen over the last 12 months."
Commissioner Harris said he is very concerned about a resurgence in organised crime activity, particularly where Ireland is seen as a destination country to land large drug consignments.
"Organised crime groups are always trying to find a chink in the armour, to move big amounts of commodity, so it's a big concern that Ireland is being targeted in that way," he said.
While incidents of drink driving are reducing, Commissioner Harris said he is worried that figures for drug driving are heading in the other direction.
"There is a big drive around road safety and around our enforcement effort," he said.
The CSO figures show there has been an increase in robbery, extortion and hijacking offences.
The rise has been driven by increases in blackmail and robbery from people.
Thefts from shops increased again while fraud and weapons and explosives offences were also up.
Reported sexual offences continue to fall.
The figures compare recorded crime statistics in the twelve months up to the end of March of this year with the previous twelve months.
Blackmail, extortion, robbery and carjacking offences increased by 18%, while there were also increases in theft offences, from people, shops and in the theft of cars.
More than two out of every five theft offences were from shops.
While homicide offences and murder were down, there has been an increase in other organised crime offences.
There were more than 16,800 drug offences recorded over the twelve-month period with increases in drug importation and drug dealing.
Gun and explosive offences also increased by 10%, with more shootings and more people caught with guns.
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Dangerous driving causing death increased by a third, and while cases of drink driving were down, drug driving offences increased.
Fraud offences also increased by 9% to more than 11,400 crimes but have reduced substantially from its height of over 17,000 offences annually during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sexual offences decreased across all categories.
Men are still more likely to be the victims of crime.
The number of male victims of attempted murder, assault, harassment and related offences rose by 2%, while the number of female victims was down by 9%.
Additional reporting Paul Reynolds
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