Josepha Madigan
Question:
400. Deputy Josepha Madigan asked the Minister for Justice the number of incidents of suspected drink spiking reported to An Garda Síochána in 2021 and to date in 2022 nationally; if any charges were made in relation to the reported incidents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46946/22]
View answer
I have contacted An Garda Síochána for the information requested by the Deputy, regretfully this information was not available in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
I refer to Parliamentary Questions No. 400 and 401 of 27 September 2022 where you sought:
the number of incidents of suspected drink spiking reported to An Garda Síochána in 2021 and to date in 2022 nationally; if any charges were made in relation to the reported incidents; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
and
the number of incidents of suspected needle spiking reported to An Garda Síochána in 2021 and to date in 2022 nationally; if any charges were made in relation to the reported incidents; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
As you will recall, I had sought the information you requested from the Garda authorities and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand.
Spiking a person’s drink or spiking someone by injection are obviously very serious offences. They are, in effect, poisoning and they are criminal offences, under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, that can result in a three year prison term.
I can assure the Deputy that any incident of this type of crime, including those with evidence to suggest a link with ‘spiking’, will be investigated by either local Gardaí supported by, or attached to, Divisional Protective Services Units.
As the Deputy will appreciate, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of Garda business, including the direction of investigation priorities and the management of the PULSE system. As Minister, I play no role in these independent functions.
I have been advised by the Garda authorities that identifying incidents which involve drink or needle spiking is dependent on the use of keywords in the incident narrative or investigation notes recorded on PULSE. These free text entries may refer specifically to drink- or needle-spiking, or may refer to the possibility of spiking without any reference to method.
I am advised by the Garda authorities that the table below shows the number of crime incidents reported to An Garda Síochána between 1 January 2021 and 21 September 2022 in which the injured party indicated that they may have been spiked.
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|
Reported 2021
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Reported 2022*
|
|
|
Drink-related
|
26
|
|
40
|
|
|
Needle-related
|
36
|
|
24
|
|
|
Method Unspecified
|
<10
|
|
11
|
|
|
|
|
1 January to 21 September only
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From these reported incidents, a Charge Sheet or Summons has been created in relation to fewer than 10 incidents as of 22nd September 2022.
Figures are based on operational data obtained from PULSE on 22 September 2022. I am informed that crime counting rules are not applied and all figures are operational and liable to change. Counts are based on the presence of key-text within the incident narrative and claims made by the injured party only and do not consider incident type or the result of any toxicology testing in relation to the incident.
