Written answers

Tuesday, 5 October 2021

Department of Justice and Equality

An Garda Síochána

Photo of Neale RichmondNeale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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530. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of assaults on gardaí in each of the years 2015 to 2020 and to date in 2021, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48122/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Justice, I am deeply conscious of the risks encountered by all members of An Garda Síochána every time they go on duty. All assaults, of whatever nature, are a blatant disregard for the safety of the brave people in uniform who risk their lives every day in the service of the State.

An Garda Síochána have advised me that a search of the PULSE database was conducted on 4 October 2021 to identify any incident of assault reported nationwide from 1January 2015 whereby a ‘Garda Injured Party’ was linked to the incident. It should be noted that this data therefore may include all types of injury recorded. PULSE was updated in October 2020 to allow for more precise recording of assaults on Garda members.

The number of such incidents reported per Garda Division is as follows:

Garda Division 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021*
Cavan/Monaghan 28 20 38 29 34 30 21
Clare 16 18 11 10 ** 14 11
Cork City 67 41 45 40 36 53 33
Cork North 30 34 38 22 44 34 27
Cork West 13 11 14 12 36 23 10
DMR Eastern 15 13 13 13 12 26 10
DMR North Central 35 28 34 53 65 86 29
DMR Northern 62 40 25 51 58 67 34
DMR South Central 31 22 27 30 52 73 43
DMR Southern 30 29 29 39 35 64 27
DMR Western 53 43 61 43 57 58 32
Donegal 19 32 37 33 32 47 35
Galway 25 20 32 34 32 65 24
Kerry 29 22 28 36 39 30 10
Kildare 26 10 14 20 17 26 19
Kilkenny/Carlow 33 38 12 18 32 27 22
Laois/Offaly 31 29 17 22 40 49 35
Limerick 32 24 18 25 23 28 14
Louth 26 40 23 38 33 42 29
Mayo 13 26 16 11 24 18 22
Meath 25 10 21 19 31 26 13
Roscommon/Longford 22 10 18 11 29 26 **
Sligo/Leitrim 15 13 15 15 25 26 16
Tipperary 47 40 60 64 32 30 32
Waterford 34 44 38 37 32 49 16
Westmeath 17 23 11 20 31 26 13
Wexford 13 17 24 11 21 29 14
Wicklow 30 ** 16 ** 19 24 17
*2021 YTD to 3 October

** Count <10

Note: Figures were collated based on PULSE data as of 1:30am on 4 October 2021. These are operational and may be liable to change.

Photo of Neale RichmondNeale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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531. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of public order offences that were handed out in each of the years 2015 to 2020 and to date in 2021, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48123/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities that Gardaí deploy a wide range of operational measures aimed at tackling public-order offences and anti-social behaviour in all contexts. The legal framework which assists the Gardaí in tackling this type of crime includes provisions under the Criminal Damage Act 1991; the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994; the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 2003; and the Intoxicating Liquor Acts 2003 and 2008.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, is responsible for the compilation and publication of all crime statistics. The CSO produces these statistics using data recorded on An Garda Síochána’s PULSE system and makes regular releases under reservation in relation to various crime statistics, including recorded and detected crime, and listing them by Garda Division. The CSO also continues to work with An Garda Síochána to address quality issues in the underlying data sources used to compile the statistics.

For the Deputy's information, the number of public order offences recorded across the State from 2015 up to Q2 of 2021 are available at cso.ie/en/statistics/crimeandjustice/

For the Deputy's information, the following table provides a breakdown of public order offences recorded by Garda Region from 2015 to end of Quarter 2 of 2021.

Public Order Offences Dublin Metropolitan Region North Western Region Eastern Region Southern Region
2015Q1 2677 1476 1390 2062
2015Q2 3128 1514 1535 2291
2015Q3 2946 1742 1571 2376
2015Q4 3037 1736 1527 2258
2015 Total 11788 6468 6023 8987
2016Q1 2266 1655 1388 1841
2016Q2 2092 1557 1356 1991
2016Q3 2321 1755 1406 2079
2016Q4 2409 1665 1470 1959
2016 Total 9088 6632 5620 7870
2017Q1 2401 1438 1318 1846
2017Q2 2660 1688 1476 2130
2017Q3 2781 1750 1604 2143
2017Q4 2681 1723 1559 1984
2017 Total 10523 6599 5957 8103
2018Q1 2342 1481 1199 1885
2018Q2 2714 1773 1490 2231
2018Q3 2553 1876 1653 2374
2018Q4 2809 1809 1627 2149
2018 Total 10418 6939 5969 8639
2019Q1 2598 1580 1485 1801
2019Q2 2779 1799 1626 2139
2019Q3 2878 1974 1638 2176
2019Q4 2677 1909 1482 1855
2019 Total 10932 7262 6231 7971
2020Q1 2520 1403 1273 1602
2020Q2 3052 1389 1348 1700
2020Q3 3175 1552 1471 1988
2020Q4 2741 1202 1100 1520
2020 Total 11488 5546 5192 6810
2021Q1 2479 1135 931 1406
2021Q2 2654 1367 1329 1780
2021 Total to date 5133 2502 2260 3186

Photo of Neale RichmondNeale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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532. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of e-scooters that were stolen by county in each of the years 2015 to 2020 and to date in 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48124/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including the recording of crimes reported to An Garda Síochána. As Minister for Justice, I have no direct role in these matters.

The Deputy will also appreciate that matters relating to legislative and regulatory classification of e-scooters, and other modes of mechanical transport, are under the remit of the Minister for Transport.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that scooters can be recorded on the Garda PULSE system as both vehicles and objects, and that a restriction of the query to vehicle records where the specific type of scooter is recorded would result in a significant under-reporting of figures.

I am also informed by the Garda authorities that a manual review of Garda records would be required to determine the number of e-scooters reported as stolen. I am further advised that a significant and disproportionate amount of Garda resources would be required to fulfil the Deputy’s request for data regarding nearly seven years, and that, in light of the complexities outlined above, An Garda Síochána is not in a position to provide the information sought by the Deputy.

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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533. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if her attention has been drawn to reports that appointments with the Garda National Immigration Bureau are being booked and sold online by a non-authorised entity; the steps her Department has taken to investigate this matter since it was raised in a parliamentary question (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48177/21]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is aware that there have been issues in the past around the securing of registration appointments and has continually introduce software fixes designed to prevent such abuses of the system. These new measures have been partly successful in preventing the block booking of appointments by third party agents.

However, some third party agents continue to provide appointment booking services in return for payment on the basis that the person provides them with their personal details in advance. My Department strongly advises against this practice of providing sensitive and personal data to unregulated and unknown third parties.

Customers should continue to apply directly for appointments as they become available without charge, through the online appointments system: www.burghquayregistrationoffice.inis.gov.ie

A new Immigration Service appointment and scheduling system, which will streamline and further improve the registration process, is currently being developed and is expected to be available to customers in November 2021.

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