Written answers

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Crime Levels

9:00 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will make a statement on the crime figures for the second quarter of 2009 published by the Central Statistics Office and in particular the continuing high level of drug related crime. [31141/09]

Photo of Dermot AhernDermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Overall the statistics on recorded crime in the second quarter of 2009 published by the Central Statistics Office show a continuation of the encouraging trends of the previous quarter which is very welcome.

As I said at the time of the release of the statistics it is heartening that of the 14 crime groups for which statistics are given, 11 show reductions, including public order, weapons and explosives and sexual offences and I am encouraged by positive trends which these statistics reveal.

That is not to ignore the fact that the statistics also reveal some matters of particular concern to which the Government is vigorously responding.

For example, while the number of homicides overall show a decrease of 20.8% (due to reduced numbers of cases of manslaughter and cases of dangerous driving leading to death) there has been an increase in the number of murders, from eight in the second quarter of 2008 to 15 in the equivalent period for 2009.

Many of these were gangland related, and it was partly to combat this trend that I piloted significant legislation through the Oireachtas in the past number of months, including the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act.

In terms of drugs offences, Garda operations have contributed to the significant increase of 54.8% in the number of detections of cultivation or manufacture of drugs.

This, allied with decreases in the possession of drugs for sale or supply (- 4.3%) and for personal use (- 0.8%), is the result of the priority given by An Garda Síochána to intercepting the supply of drugs.

The House will be aware from media reports and elsewhere of the ongoing action being taken by An Garda Síochána in pursuing the activities of drugs gangs and the ongoing considerable success they are having in making major seizures and arrests.

Indeed I warmly commend our law enforcement agencies, specifically our Customs Service and An Garda Siochana on their recent high profile successful operations in this regard.

There is no room for complacency and this work is ongoing.

Finally , it is clear that we cannot tackle the problem of drug misuse through law enforcement measures alone. As set out in the Government's new National Drugs Strategy for the period 2009 to 2016, we need to address the problem in a co-ordinated way across the pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research.

In this context, I can assure the House that my Department, and all the agencies under its aegis, are fully committed to this approach and to the implementation of the Strategy.

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