Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 241: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes recorded and detected across all headings in the Longford-Westmeath Garda division during 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter [13732/06]

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 Longford-Westmeath for the years 2000 to 2005, inclusive.

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. Consequently, the statistics provided for 1997 are not comparable with statistics provided for 2000 and subsequent years.

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.

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 over 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 as follows: 1995, 102,484; 1996, 100,785.

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 there were six murders recorded with six detected, and three manslaughters recorded with three detected.