asked the Minister for Justice the number of cars which have been reported stolen this year to the latest date for which figures are available; and how this compares with the two previous years.
Written Answers. - Crime Statistics.
408.
It is assumed that the question is intended to include cars taken without the owners' consent even though this is not stealing in the legal sense.
The total number of larcenies of motor vehicles (which includes cars, motorcycles, vans etc.) for the first eight months of 1986 was 665. The figures for the corresponding periods in 1985 and 1984 were 975 and 818 respectively. In addition, there were 9,406 unauthorised takings of motor vehicles during the first eight months of 1986; the figures for the corresponding periods in 1985 and 1984 were 10,273 and 12,077 respectively. The number of cars (as distinct from other vehicles) included in these figures is not available. In all cases classified as "unauthorised takings" the vehicles involved were recovered. The 1986 figures are provisional.
409.
asked the Minister for Justice the number of robberies, with violence, which have taken place this year to the latest date for which figures are available; how they compare with the figures for the same period last year; and the number of cases in which (a) guns and (b) other implements, such as axes, knives etc. have been used.
Garda crime records are maintained in a way that does not allow for the ready abstraction of the numbers of robberies in which violence actually occurred. Accordingly, the information sought could not be compiled without the commitment to the task of a level of Garda manpower which would not be warranted.
I can state, however, that in the first eight months of this year — the latest period for which figures are available — 1,831 robberies and aggravated burglaries were recorded and firearms were carried in 462 of these. The corresponding figures for the same period last year were 2,225 and 417. The 1986 figures are provisional at this stage.