Garda report says headline crime down 3%

Headline crime fell by three per cent last year while non-headline crime dropped by 14 per cent, according the Garda Annual Report published today.

The report said murders were down 13 per cent while assaults causing harm were down 22 per cent. Sexual offences were also found to have dropped by 22 per cent.

The Minister for Justice, Mr Michael McDowell, welcomed the figures, saying "I am very encouraged that the numbers of murders has been steadily declining since 2001".

However, he also warned about reading too much into the figures.

"All headline offences are serious but some are far more serious than others. So we have to be careful with the overall figures of a reduction of 3 per cent because that figure attaches the same statistical weight to a bicycle theft as a murder," he said.

The Fine Gael justice spokesman Mr Jim O'Keeffe criticised the report saying "the Garda Annual Report for 2003 is being published so late in 2004 that it is already out of date".

"Looking at the 2003 figures of approximately 103,000 crimes, that amounts to 282 headline offences being committed every day. Or looked at in another way, in the hour or so that it takes the Minister to complete his press conference today there will be an additional 11 new victims of serious crime in the country - and they are just the crimes that are reported." Mr O'Keefe continued.The Labour Party spokesman for Justice Mr Joe Costello said, "with gun crime increasing by 40 per cent in the first 9 months of 2004, rape increasing by 75 per cent in the same period, and unlawful carnal knowledge increasing by 173 per cent there is certainly no reason for complacency despite the slight overall drop in headline crime."

Mr Costello also criticised the Minister for failing to deliver 2000 extra Gardai promised by the Government and called it a matter of grave concern."It is imperative that Minister McDowell no longer reneges on his and the Government's commitments but immediately begin to fulfil his latest set of promises," Mr Costello said.