Crime Levels.

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

Questions (174, 175)

Paul Connaughton

Question:

189 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes detected across all headings in Galway Garda division during 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8470/06]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell)

The introduction of the PULSE computer system by the Garda Síochána in 1999 has led to more complete and comprehensive recording of crimes reported than was previously the case. Consequently, the statistics provided for 1997 are not comparable to statistics provided for 2000 and subsequent years.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that the attached table shows the ten headline group totals for the Garda division of Galway West, which includes the Garda district of Galway.

It should be borne in mind that any interpretation of the crime figures should factor in the increase in our population in the past ten years. In 1995, with a population of almost 3.6 million people, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 of the population. In 2005, with a population of over 4.1 million, there were 24.6 crimes per 1,000 of the population, a reduction of 4.4 crimes per 1,000 of the population. A certain proportion of the increase in the figures for recorded headline crime is due to the increases in recording rates resulting from the phasing in of the Garda PULSE IT system from 1999 to 2002.

Headline Offences Recorded and Detected for the Garda Division of Galway West for Years 2000 to 2005*

	2005*	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
	Rec	Det	Rec	Det	Rec	Det	Rec	Det	Rec	Det	Rec	Det
Homicide	5	2	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Assault	170	110	128	84	183	130	257	175	165	119	62	55
Sexual Offences	77	23	79	36	108	88	237	197	88	51	57	49
Arson	37	0	40	8	30	5	55	13	64	8	20	5
Drugs	51	48	61	60	57	56	72	71	57	55	58	58
Theft	2,136	817	1,847	732	1,893	826	1,842	578	1,543	518	905	339
Burglary	1,096	147	629	89	864	179	1,008	239	763	121	554	135
Robbery	54	14	49	13	53	21	69	35	46	10	40	14
Fraud	95	48	97	69	120	73	259	191	219	166	196	142
Other	39	25	47	38	39	28	36	26	31	16	6	5
Total	3,760	1,234	2,977	1,129	3,348	1,407	3,836	1,526	2,977	1,065	1,899	803

*Figures provided are provisional, operational and liable to change.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

190 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes recorded across all headings in Naas Garda division during 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8471/06]

View answer

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell)

I am informed by the Garda authorities that the attached table shows the ten headline group totals recorded for the Garda division of Carlow-Kildare, which includes the Garda district of Naas, for the years 2000-05 inclusive.

It should be borne in mind that any interpretation of the crime figures should factor in the increase in our population in the past ten years. In 1995 with a population of almost 3.6 million people, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 of the population. In 2005, with a population of over 4.1 million, there were 24.6 crimes per 1,000 of the population, a reduction of 4.4 crimes per 1,000 of the population. A certain proportion of the increase in the figures for recorded headline crime is due to the increases in recording rates resulting from the phasing in of the Garda PULSE IT system from 1999 to 2002.

Headline Offences Recorded for the Garda Division of Carlow / Kildare for the Years 2000 to 2005*

	2005*	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
	Rec	Rec	Rec	Rec	Rec	Rec
Homicide	3	0	0	1	4	6
Assault	197	203	222	283	119	70
Sexual Offences	79	87	162	121	77	41
Arson	71	61	62	55	50	51
Drugs	113	86	91	84	82	77
Theft	2,406	2,289	2,298	2,047	1,661	1,210
Burglary	1,635	1,633	1,608	1,676	1,434	1,384
Robbery	97	75	75	80	80	59
Fraud	169	171	211	200	203	215
Other	62	62	53	84	38	10
Total	4,832	4,667	4,782	4,631	3,748	3,123

* Figures provided are provisional, operational and liable to change.