Vol. 549 No. 2
23 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in respect of the Garda report on crime for 2000, the reason the criminal damage offence was transferred out of the category of serious offence; the reason this recategorisation was not pointed out at the time of the publication of the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6060/02]
The Garda organisation has sole responsibility for the compilation of its crime statistics. Neither I nor my Department has any role – good, bad or indifferent – in the process and no such role has ever been sought. Therefore, the end product of the compilation process in the year 2000, namely the Annual Report of An Garda Síochána 2000, is solely a product of internal Garda activity.
The Deputy will be aware that, with respect to 2000, the Garda Síochána changed the system of crime presentation as part of the PULSE information technology project. Specifically, the changeover to the PULSE platform allowed the Garda organisation to reorganise its crime classification system. It now more accurately reflects the complex, modern criminal activities reported or known to the Garda.
For some decades past crime statistics were presented in two main tables titled indictable offences and non-indictable offences. In the year 2000 the Garda revised its presentation. For the first time it used the two main categories of headline offences and non-headline offences.
It is correct to state that criminal damage offences were previously counted as indictable crime. However, the conclusions which have been drawn about the fact that they are now in the non-headline category are very wide of the mark.
The advice from the Garda authorities is that before the introduction of the PULSE system a significant percentage of criminal damage offences simply did not feature in the statistics at all. Had they been included they would have been categorised as non-indictable. Therefore, the argument that 10,000 offences, a proportion of which would be criminal damage, have been moved from the headline to the non-headline offence category simply does not stand up to scrutiny.
Crime counting rules have remained unchanged throughout the process of transition to PULSE. These rules are long established in Ireland and in many European counties. They relate to the manner in which members of the Garda record crimes. So changes in the compilation of crime statistics in the Garda annual report for 2000 primarily refer to the manner of presentation of data and not to willed changes in recording practice. On page 75 of the report reference is made to a number of changes in the manner of presentation.
