Theft offences have increased by more than a third in the first three months of this year when compared to the same period last year.
The latest Central Statistics Office crime figures show theft from shops increased by 37% and contributed to almost half the recorded increase.
There were increases across most of the fifteen serious crime categories with homicide and related offences up 28%, robbery up 20% and attempted murder up 7%.
Fraud and related offences were down 41%, mostly due to a fall in incidents of unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone.
The numbers of burglary and related offences, at 9,246 in the first three months of this year, was just over half (55%) of the 16,741 incidents recorded in the same period in 2019.
Victims of attempts and threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences fell by 8%.
The number of male victims fell by 8% while the number of female victims fell by 7%.
Today's figures continue to be categorised as 'statistics under reservation', which means the CSO is not fully confident in the accuracy of the Garda PULSE recording system.
