Paddy McHugh (Galway East, Independent)
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Question 390: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes recorded and detected across all headings in a Garda division (details supplied) during the years from 2000 to date in 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11901/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities that the following table provides the total number of headline offences, by group, recorded and detected in the Garda division of Roscommon-Galway East for the years 2000 to 2005, inclusive, and up to 28 February 2006. I am pleased to note that the statistics show a decrease of 5.5% in recorded crime when comparing 2004 with 2005, and a decrease of 19.4% when comparing 2002 with 2005.

The introduction of the PULSE computer system by the Garda Síochána in 1999 has led to more complete and comprehensive recording of crimes reported than was previously the case. The figures provided for 2000 and 2001 are incomplete due to the phased implementation of PULSE. The first full year captured is 2002 and is a more accurate base year to use.

It should be borne in mind that any interpretation of the crime figures should factor in the increase in our population in the past ten years. In 1995, with a population of almost 3.6 million people, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 of the population. In 2005, with a population of more than 4.1 million, there were 24.6 crimes per 1,000 of the population, a reduction of 4.4 crimes per 1,000 of the population. To put this in context, during the two full years of the rainbow coalition Government, with a population of 600,000 fewer than at present, the headline crime figures were 102,484 in 1995 and 100,785 in 1996.