THE NUMBER OF residential burglaries in Ireland fell by 50% over the course of four years, provisional CSO statistics have shown.

The stats from An Garda Síochána show that residential burglaries fell from 12,057 during the winter of 2014/15 to 5,997 during the winter of 2018/19. 

The stats have been released Under Reservation by the Central Statistics Office, meaning that the quality of the stats don’t meet the standards required by the CSO.

This categorisation came after quality issues were found in relation to the recording of data on the garda PULSE system.

The publication of recorded crime stats was suspended temporarily in 2017 pending the completion of an internal review of 41 homicide incidents by gardaí. 

The CSO resumed publishing crime stats after 2017, but with the caveat that the recording criteria didn’t meet its standards. 

Operation Thor 

The winter phase Operation Thor runs from the start of October until the end of March each year.

Gardaí said that the year-on-year reduction is almost 10%, from 6,613 last year. 

A key part of the winter phase has been the targeting of organised crime gangs involved in burglaries. Gardaí said that Operation Thor-related activities have led to numerous arrests of inter-regional travelling criminals where high-powered ‘get-away’ vehicles were identified and intercepted.

Gardaí said that between October 2018 and March 2019, there were over 73,000 checkpoints undertaken by gardaí.

Assistant commissioner, Special Crime Operations, John O’Driscoll said:

“The positive conclusion to the Winter Phase of Operation Thor is encouraging and we will refocus and build on that success in Operation Thor, during the summer months.

We are particularly aware of the vulnerability of older victims and are determined to apprehend those who exploit their vulnerability.

The CSO said that the Under Reservation categorisation will remain in place until such time as the CSO is satisfied that the level of accuracy and completeness of the underlying data is of sufficient quality.