Fitzgerald welcomes crime figures showing drop in burglaries

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has welcomed figures showing a 31 per cent drop in the level of burglary crime.

She credited the drop to “increased resources provided by the Government and supported by new legislation which I introduced this time last year, targeting repeat burglary offenders”.

The new CSO statistics compare crime trends for the twelve months ending 30 September 2016 with the previous twelve-month period.

In addition to the drop in burglaries, there were also reductions in other categories of property crime, including theft (down 14.6 per cent) and robbery (down 11.1 per cent). Overall, nine out of the fourteen crime categories in the CSO classification showed a decrease.

However, some categories showed small scale increases, including a 6.1 per cent increase in drink-driving offences.

Referring to the 6.6 per cent increase in sexual offences, Ms Fitzgerald highlighted the recent debates on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, which she hopes to see enacted in early 2017.

The legislation includes enhanced protections for victims of sexual offences in the criminal process as well as measures to enhance the protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation.

She also highlighted other upcoming legislation which is designed to deal more effectively with criminal behaviour and support communities and victims of crime, including recently published proposals to strengthen the bail system and the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill. which will fulfil a commitment to enact legislation to strengthen the rights of victims of crime and their families.