Fraud offences were up by 35 per cent from 5,779 to 7,805 recorded incidents, while drug offences increased by 17 per cent from 17,896 to 20,972.

Welcoming the figures, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said: “A range of measures are being taken to prevent and combat fraud, including insurance fraud. Gardaí are taking steps to ensure consistency in how reports of potential fraud are received, recorded and disseminated for investigation.

“Changes have also been made to the Pulse system to improve the quality and consistency of recording of insurance related crime. These steps are very significant and will assist in ensuring that we have a reliable baseline against which to compare these figures in future years.”

The upward trend in reported sexual offences continued, up by seven per cent on the previous 12-month period to 3,332 incidents, and the number of incidents of kidnapping and related offences also rose by 19 (16 per cent).

The number of homicides fell by 27 compared with the previous period, largely driven by a decrease of 22 in the number of confirmed incidents of Dangerous driving leading to death compared with the previous year.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has advised that “care should be taken when interpreting this drop, as the more recent figure may rise as investigations into fatal road traffic collisions conclude”.

The figure also “reflects a technical revision carried out by An Garda Síochána during Q3 2019 to correct 156 PULSE records of Dangerous Driving Causing Death for the period 2003-2019 which were identified as having an incorrect reported date”, it added.

The number of burglary and related offences decreased by six per cent in the 12 months to September, from 17,694 to 16,580.

The CSO’s Recorded Crime Q3 2019 report is published “under reservation” due to ongoing concerns about the quality of statistics.