Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2004
189 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of headline offences in 1998; the number of headline offences in 2003; and the projected or estimated total number of headline offences committed during 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34055/04]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that the 1998 Garda Síochána annual report recorded 85,627 indictable offences. There were 103,360 headline offences recorded in the 2003 Garda Síochána annual report. I am not prepared to comment on projected total figures for 2004 until the final provisional statistics have been received by me from the Garda Commissioner. However, as the Deputy will be aware, there was a reduction of 3% in headline offences, and 14% in non-headline offences, in 2003 compared to 2002. This downward trend has continued in 2004, which has seen a reduction of 7% in headline offences for the first nine months of this year compared to the same period for 2003.
The Deputy will be aware that the crime statistics since the year 2000 are not directly comparable with those of previous years. This is due to the altered format of the annual report of the Garda Síochána following the introduction of the PULSE system in 2000.
