As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including Garda operations aimed at preventing and countering criminal activity. As Minister, I have no direct role in these matters.
However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I sought information from the Garda authorities in relation to incidents of investment fraud. A search of the PULSE database was conducted on the 06 May 2022 for incidents of the type “Investment Fraud” which were reported during the period 01/01/2018 – 05/05/2022.
Based on the numbers returned, the table below shows the count of incidents by year:
Year
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
(Up to 05 May 2022)
|
Count of Incidents
|
*
|
147
|
360
|
641
|
130
|
*Fewer than 10
Incident data is based upon operational data from the PULSE system as was available on 06/05/2022 and is liable to change.