Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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745. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the details of the number of reports to the Gardaí of incidences of spiking another person with a drug or substance without the persons knowledge, for each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39481/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Spiking is a serious offence with potentially devastating effects on victims. It is a crime under section 12 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, which provides for the offence of administering a substance capable of interfering with the victim’s bodily functions. Where spiking is committed with intent to commit a further offence (such as sexual assault or theft), that further offence, or an attempt to commit it, may also be charged.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that there is no specific offence type for "spiking" recorded on the PULSE incident management system. To identify such incidents, keyword searches across the narrative descriptions of reported crimes — primarily within the categories of Poisoning, Assaults, and Sexual Offences — are undertaken, followed by manual review to determine relevance.

An Garda Síochána published an analysis of spiking incidents in May 2024 which contains an overview of spiking incidents between 2010 and 2023. The report can be accessed at the following link: www.garda.ie/en/about-us/publications/general-reports/spiking-incidents-may-2024.pdf.

An Garda Síochána have advised they are not in a position to provide a further update at this time.