The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today published the recorded crime
statistics for the second quarter of 2011. Speaking on publication, the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Alan Shatter TD, welcomed
the decreases in all of the 14 crime groups for which figures are given,
compared with the same quarter in 2010.
Minister Shatter said "The reduction in all categories of recorded crime
in the last quarter is very encouraging. While the figures show that the
Garda strategies in place to prevent and combat crime are working, both the
Garda Commissioner and I are determined that they will not lead to any
complacency on our part. The public finances and the resources we have
available are under severe pressure. It is vital that we continue to use
them to maximum effect."
Minister Shatter added “I welcome completion yesterday of the passage
through the Oireachtas of the Criminal Justice Bill and the Criminal
Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) (No 2) Bill. The Criminal Justice
Bill will provide vital assistance to the Gardaí in current investigations
into white collar crimes and future investigations which may be undertaken.
The Community Service Bill is intended to bring about a greater use of
Community Service Orders to the benefit of local communities and to save
taxpayers' money in terms of prison costs incurred in respect of short
terms of imprisonment.”
Of particular note in the statistics are the reductions in homicide and
sexual offences. The number of homicide offences in the quarter is down by
39.1% and on an annualised basis down by 14.3%. This results from the
number of murders being down a quarter, and the number of cases of
dangerous driving leading to death being down more than half (60%).
The reduction of 37.6% in sexual offences is also encouraging. This
reduction is spread across a wide range of such offences. As the CSO
points out, there was an increase in such offences in 2010, as a result of
offences occurring in years prior to 2010 being recorded in that year.
However, the Minister has expressed concern that it appears as if a
significant number of sexual offences reported to organisations such as the
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, who provide support to the alleged victims of
such crimes, are not being reported to An Garda Síochána. The Minister is
therefore going to undertake consultations about this important issue in
September.
The figures for property related crime (broadly speaking robbery, burglary
and theft) all show reductions in the quarter. The Minister notes that the
annualised figures, while they show a decrease in the number of burglary
and related offences (down 3.3%), also show increases in the numbers of
cases of robbery, extortion and hijacking (up 8%) and of burglary and
related offences (up 0.1%). The Minister said that these types of offences
often have a serious effect on people’s sense of wellbeing. Senior Garda
management is continuing to give a high priority to combating these
offences and providing support and advice on crime prevention to the
public.
The number of controlled drug offences was down 19.1% quarter on quarter.
At the same time, there were significant increases of 140.0% and 20.9% in
the quarter in the numbers of detected cases of importation of drugs and
cultivation or manufacture of drugs respectively. The Minister said “
These figures continue the trend shown in previous figures. I welcome the
increase in detections, which tackle the suppliers of illegal drugs, both
those producing drugs domestically and those attempting to import them. By
tackling suppliers in this way, the Garda Commissioner and the Force will
continue to have a significant impact on reducing the harm to communities
and individuals for which this trade is responsible.”
The Minister added “I welcome the extension last week of the Drug Treatment
Court. The Court has been operating since 2000 and although it experienced
some notable successes it had a limited catchment area - Dublin 1, 7 and
parts of Dublin 3. With the co-operation of the Health Services Executive
in relation to vital treatment services, the Courts Service has now been
able to increase its scope to admit participants from all areas of the
north side of Dublin city and Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8. The extension of the
catchment area will be piloted from this week for a period of six months,
after which an assessment will be conducted as to how the project is
proceeding and consider whether or not the capacity exists to extend it to
cover participants from the rest of the county of Dublin.”
Work is ongoing in the Minister’s Department on a number of commitments in
the Programme for Government aimed at helping in bringing to justice those
responsible for committing crime. The Minister will also introduce
legislation to strengthen the powers of the Criminal Assets Bureau in
relation to forfeiting the proceeds of crime, including drug traffickers
and dealers. Gardaí will be freed up for front line policing by ensuring
that administrative duties are carried out by civilian staff and by
reforming case management systems, thereby ensuring that Gardaí are not
unnecessarily detained in the courts.
Minister Shatter said “In addition to the work ongoing on turning into
reality the specific commitments in the justice area in the Programme for
Government, progress is also being made on drafting the White Paper on
Crime, which will set out a policy framework for future strategies to
combat and prevent crime. This work involves an end-to-end examination of
the prevention, intervention and enforcement strategies to combat crime.
Following a major consultative exercise, I plan that substantial progress
will be achieved on this by the end of 2011.”
The crime statistics are available on the CSO website www.cso.ie.