Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 September 2019
298. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the status of work to return crime statistics to the official statistics standard required by the Central Statistics Office rather than being published under reservation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37618/19]
View answerAs previously outlined to the Deputy, the crime figures of the Central Statistics Office currently remain “Under Reservation”. However, it is clear that progress is being made by An Garda Síochána and the CSO in improving the quality of the crime statistics.
The CSO in December 2018 published a third review of the quality of recorded crime statistics, based on data recorded on the PULSE database system for crimes reported to Gardaí in 2017. Among other points, the review concluded that clear improvements had been made in the manner in which criminal incidents were being recorded on the PULSE system.
While this is encouraging, it is also clear that there is more work to be done in this area, My Department, in conjunction with the Policing Authority, will continue to monitor the progress of An Garda Síochána in ensuring that the national crime statistics are returned to the higher standard required by the CSO.
Finally, the Deputy may be interested to be know that the latest CSO crime statistics, covering the second quarter of 2019, will be released on 27 September 2019. I look forward to reviewing these statistics when they are available.
