Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 388: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the crime statistics across all headings for the years 1997 to 2004 for Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Arklow and Blessington as this information was not supplied in the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 366 of 29 June 2005. [28040/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The information requested was supplied in response to Question No. 366 of 29 June 2005.

In regard to crime figures, the Deputy is aware that on becoming Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I arranged for the publication of headline crime statistics on a quarterly basis in order to improve the quality of information available to the public. While caution should be exercised in interpreting levels of crime between quarters, I am pleased to note that during my term of office as Minister, the quarterly crime rate has decreased from 6.7 per 1,000 population to 6 per 1,000 over the longer period of 11 quarters for which figures are available. This trend is reflected throughout most Garda districts in the country. Taking into account the significant increase in our population since 1995, the headline crime rate has fallen from 29 per 1,000 population in 1995 to 25 per 1,000 population in 2004.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that the tables below show the headline offences, by group, for the Garda districts of Bray, which includes the Greystones area; Gorey, which includes the Arklow area; Wicklow; and Baltinglass, which includes the Blessington area. In interpreting these figures, account must be taken of the introduction of the new PULSE computer system by the Garda Síochána in 1999, which led to more complete and comprehensive recording of crimes reported than was previously the case. These new groups are more comprehensive and not comparable to the four crime groups previously used. For this reason, the figures for 1997 are not comparable to statistics provided for the years 2000 onwards. For the purposes of clarity I have supplied the details requested by the Deputy only from 2000.