McDowell defends Government’s crime detection record

AN TÁNAISTE Michael McDowell yesterday defended the Government’s record on combating crime in Dublin, challenging Fine Gael’s assertion that the justice minister was failing to protect the capital’s citizens.

Unveiling statistics that showed the detection rate at 33.5% in Dublin, Fine Gael’s deputy leader Richard Bruton said that under Mr McDowell, it was “quite easy” to get away with serious crime in Dublin.

“Over four years ago, the Justice Minister and the rest of his Government made a pledge that people would feel safer in their homes, communities and businesses. With just nine months to go until the General Election it is clear that, for the people of Dublin, Michael

McDowell has failed to honour that pledge,” he said. “Last year, only one-third of all serious crimes were detected in the capital. In fact, detection rates have fallen against all ten categories of serious crime since 2000, the first year for which these categories were reported. “Michael McDowell and his Government has failed miserably to get a handle on Dublin’s crime problem”.

In response, the minister said the detection rates in the Dublin area, though lower by comparison with the rest of the country, were high by international standards. Falling detection rates could be explained by improvements made in the recording of incidents through the PULSE system. Mr McDowell acknowledged that there were considerable variations in burglary detection rates throughout Dublin, ranging from 9.5% in Terenure to 34% in Store Street.

“This is a matter of considerable worry to the Garda Commissioner,” admitted the minister, but he said that the situation was being tackled by a new inspectorate and the use of civilian crime analysts.

In a statement, last night, the Department of Justice said that detection rates for property crime, vandalism, criminal damage and burglary, particularly the burglary of unoccupied houses and business premises, are low worldwide and Ireland is no exception.

“However, garda detection rates have been falling in relation to property crimes, which has a high reporting levels and this raises an efficiency issue which the minister has already taken up with the Garda Commissioner,” said the statement.

A department spokesman said that the level of headline crime nationally in 2005 was actually lower than that for 2003 by 1.6% and 4.4% lower than 2002.

“The figures that Fine Gael never use are for 1995,” said the spokesman. “When we had a population of almost 3.6 million, there were 29 crimes per 1,000 of the population, while in 2005, with a population of around 4.2 million, there were 24 crimes per 1,000 of the population — a 17% decrease in the number of crimes per 1,000 of the population.”