Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 March 2012
60Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the preliminary crime statistics in respect of 2011, broken down by category; his views on the number of burglaries and his plans for dealing with this specific issue during 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14028/12]
View answer63Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of aggravated assaults in 2011 and to date in 2012; the legislative plans he has for this area; his views that the Gardaí have sufficient resources to deal with this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14029/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 63 together.
Beginning with the Deputy's crime statistics queries, I am informed by the Central Statistics Office, which has the statutory responsibility for the production of crime statistics, that the recorded crime statistics for 2011 are expected to be published at the end of this month. This reflects a new publication layout and schedule, as a result of which future releases will be published three months after the end of the relevant quarter. Accordingly, the CSO recorded crime statistics for the third quarter of 2011 are the most recent available official figures. These showed a welcome decrease in 12 of 14 crime groups, compared with the same quarter in 2010, as well as a decrease on an annualised basis in 11 of these 14 categories. This included reductions in homicide offences, sexual assaults, controlled-drug offences and public order offences.
In so far as the Deputy's two specific queries are concerned, the number of burglaries increased by 3.2% on an annualised basis to the end of quarter three in 2011, while assault offences were reduced by 7.4% over the same period. These and other crime trends are monitored closely by Garda management, with intelligence-led initiatives put in place to target burglary and other criminality. Special intelligence-led operations are also in place to tackle serious and organised criminal activity.
The national crime prevention unit, NCPU, and crime prevention officers at divisional level provide advice, information and support to organisations, businesses and individuals aimed at reducing burglary crime and the opportunity to commit burglary. These specially trained officers are skilled at identifying environmental design risks and advise on what mitigating action can be taken to reduce opportunities to commit burglary and other property crime.
The national crime prevention unit has designed a number of crime prevention advice leaflets, including advice on home security and burglary prevention, by means of a step-by-step checklist of requirements to reduce opportunistic burglary crime. These leaflets and the checklist are available on the Garda website. During 2012, the national Garda supporting safer communities campaign will continue to highlight key issues, in particular burglary prevention. The primary objective of this Garda community safety campaign is to engage with and raise awareness within communities of initiatives aimed at preventing crime, reducing the fear of crime and promoting community safety. The first campaign will take place in early May and the second will take place in September.
The "Crime Call" television programme, broadcast once a month to an average audience of 400,000 viewers, is often utilised to target specifically the issue of burglary prevention. Practical crime prevention advice will continue to be given to the public to highlight the most common means of entry along with effective security measures the householder can take to deter the burglar.
More broadly, the 2012 policing plan of An Garda Síochána sets out the continued commitment of An Garda Síochána to proactively target groups and individuals engaged in criminal activity, including organised criminal activities. Local Garda management closely monitors mobile and other patrols, together with other operational strategies in place, in conjunction with crime trends and policing needs of the community to ensure optimum use is made of Garda resources and the best possible Garda service is provided to the public.
Garda management is satisfied that a comprehensive policing service is being delivered and that current structures meet the requirements for delivery of an effective and efficient policing service. For the Government's part, we will do everything we can to support the gardaí in their work, to provide resources as public finances permit, and to respond to any legislative needs that are identified.
I thank the Minister for his reply and welcome the trend he identified. I wish to focus on a couple of areas, and in particular aggravated assaults. There were two very high profile incidents at Christmas and last month and we sympathise with the families of Andrew Dolan and James Tynan.
There is a difficulty in our urban centres, in particular at weekends, where drug or alcohol related incidents occur. The Minister spoke about the safer communities campaign but there is a fear of being in many urban centres at weekends after a certain hour. Is there a specific strategy in place either in the Department or the Garda to address that issue, in particular in light of the completely unwarranted and aggravated assaults which I mentioned and which take place every weekend, although we do not hear about them?
We will probably get the chance to debate the crime figures next month but, last week, we saw a very serious spike in the number of gangland attacks and crimes. Is the Minister concerned about that spike or is it under control? Has he discussed last week's incidents? We had the incident in Tallaght where an innocent bystander, Melanie McCarthy-McNamara, was killed. Has the Minister had any discussions with the Garda Commissioner or the Garda authorities in regard to that issue?
To take the first question first, the Garda is very conscious of the reality that more incidents tend to occur at weekends than during the week. I expect the new Garda roster will be of considerable assistance in this context and it is expected that it will start to operate from 1 April. That will allow for the organisation of gardaí in order to focus a concentration of gardaí in urban areas at weekends. That is a very important change which took some considerable time to bring about. I welcome the assistance and co-operation of the Garda bodies in discussing and negotiating these changes. That will be of additional help to the gardaí in regard to assaults which have taken place.
It is a continuing concern that young people drink alcohol to access at weekends and that what might be minor disagreements end up being violent incidents and that tragedies occur such as those described by the Deputy. I know he will understand if, as Minister, I do not address a specific incident as I do not want to prejudice any investigation or possible prosecution that might take place.
In regard to gangland issues and the barbaric shootings, unfortunately, we have within the community numbers of individuals engaged in drug gangs who have no respect of any nature for human life and who behave in a manner which is completely beyond the Pale and is unacceptable to the overall community. There have been incidents, of which Deputies are aware, in the past number of days. Indeed, only yesterday I had a meeting with the Garda Commissioner to discuss generally, as we do on a regular basis, issues of concern and steps being taken by An Garda Síochána. Gardaí are very much engaged in investigating the events that have taken place. They have a clear focus on those who have been engaged in some of these events. Again, I must be careful about what I say in the Dáil about these matters.
Unfortunately, we have drug gangs which are at war with each other. There are individuals in these gangs who develop grudges for a series of reasons and resort to a barbaric form of violence, willing to take life without any forethought.
I assure the Deputy and the House the Garda is specifically focusing on those gangs which need to be targeted. They are doing everything possible to bring an end to these incidents-----
Prevention is the word.
-----and I believe they will be successful in bringing to justice those responsible.
It is out of control.
If we could cut out what happened last week it might not be repeated. The Minister stated, "Lawlessness cannot be allowed to prevail and the gang lords cannot be left to mete out their own version of street justice as they see fit". Speaking about the then Minister, Dermot Ahern, he also stated, "The Minister is not living up to his most basic responsibility of making sure the people feel safe on the streets of the nation's capital. Innocent bystanders have been murdered before and if the killing is allowed to continue at this rate it won't be long before such a tragedy happens again". What is the Minister doing to ensure innocent people will not be killed in the coming weeks in Dublin?
Recent legislation is being fully used by the Garda to target these gangs. Gardaí are applying all appropriate resources to bring to justice those who are responsible for the deaths that have occurred. I do not believe it is acceptable that we have gangs who believe they can take life with no accountability or responsibility. I have absolute faith in the work gardaí are doing to bring to justice those who have engaged in this conduct. The Garda has my full support in its continuing investigations into the events that have taken place. I am sure in the fullness of time the professionalism of gardaí in addressing these issues will become evident to the Deputy in the context of those who are brought before the courts.
