John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 439: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes recorded and detected across all headings in Sligo-Leitrim Garda division during 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13256/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I have been informed by the Garda authorities that the following table outlines the total number of headline offences, by group, recorded and detected in the Garda division of Sligo-Leitrim between 2000 and 2005, inclusive. The introduction of the PULSE computer system by the Garda in 1999 has led to more complete and comprehensive recording of the crimes which are reported. Therefore, the statistics provided for 1997 are not comparable to the statistics provided for 2000 and subsequent years and the figures provided for 2000 and 2001 are incomplete due to the phased implementation of the PULSE system. The first full year captured by the system is 2002, which is a more accurate base year to use. Any interpretation of the crime figures should consider the increase in population over the last ten years. In 1995, with a population of almost 3.6 million people, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 people. In 2005, with a population of over 4.1 million people, there were 24.6 crimes per 1,000 people. Therefore, there has been a reduction of 4.4 crimes per 1,000 people. During the rainbow coalition Government, when there was a population of 600,000 less than at present, there were 102,484 headline crimes in 1995 and 100,785 headline crimes in 1996. The headline offence of homicide includes not only murder and manslaughter but the other homicide offences of infanticide, abortion, attempted murder and threat to murder. Over the six-year period shown in the table, four murders were recorded, of which two were detected; and two manslaughters recorded, both of which were detected.