Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am aware of the report in question which asserts that there was a 26% increase in burglaries in the 12 month period from June 2005 to June 2006 and a 12% increase in burglaries in Dublin — not, as the question suggested, 35%. I am a little perplexed by this because when I looked at the report on the Internet, it stated "the eircom PhoneWatch Burglary Report was conducted by the OSG Group, the country's leading loss adjuster, based on a sample of more than 10,747 household insurance claims in the twelve months between 1st June 2005 and 1st June 2006". The report states:

The eircom PhoneWatch Burglary Report was conducted by the OSG Group, the country's leading loss adjustor, based on a sample of more than 10,747 household insurance claims in the twelve months between 1st June 2005 and 1st June 2006.

*Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Headline Crime statistics indicate that 26,270 burglaries were reported during the period of June 2005 and May 2006. This represents an 8% increase on 2004/2005 figures for the same period.

The problem with this is that it is based on a sample of 10,000.

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