Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 441: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of assaults in each year over the past five years on a county basis; his views on whether the number of assaults involving random and sporadic attacks by groups of youths on other youths has escalated in recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26930/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Following the submission in 2004 of a report and recommendations by an expert group on crime statistics, it was decided that the compilation and publication of crime statistics should be taken over by the Central Statistics Office, as the national statistical agency, from the Garda Síochána. The Garda Síochána Act 2005 consequently makes provision for this and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose. Following the setting up of the necessary technical systems and auditing of the data from which the statistics are compiled, the CSO is now compiling and publishing criminal statistics and has published provisional headline crime statistics since the third quarter of 2006. In addition, it has compiled and published a series of quarterly and annual statistics for the period starting with the first quarter of 2003. I understand that the CSO are examining how the crime statistics published might be expanded and made more comprehensive.

I have requested the CSO to provide the statistics sought by the Deputy directly to him.

I am pleased to note that the provisional headline crime figures for the third quarter released by the Central Statistics Office show a decrease of 9.8% in the number of cases of assault causing harm when compared with the same quarter in 2006.