The Policing Authority today welcomed the resumed publication of crime statistics by the Central Statistics Office following a year of suspension. Notwithstanding that the statistics are published with reservations, it is important for public confidence the best available data is publicly available.

The Authority will engage with the Central Statistics Office to ensure that the data published today is consistent with reports provided to the Authority regarding homicides in particular.

The Authority has noted the comments from the CSO that there are likely to be further revisions, that they have ongoing concerns about the quality of data, and that those concerns are not confined to the homicide group of crimes. This is consistent with concerns which the Authority has expressed throughout 2017, concerns which are ongoing and which have ensured that the quality of Garda Síochána data is an enduring matter on the Authority’s agenda which it will continue to raise and interrogate across all of its oversight work.