Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 May 2023
291. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Justice the number of incidents of suspected needle spiking reported to An Garda Síochána in 2022 and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20462/23]
View answerSpiking a person’s drink or spiking someone by injection are very serious offences. These offences are, in effect, poisoning, and are criminal offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 that can result in a three-year prison term.
I can assure the Deputy that any incident of this type of crime, including those with evidence to suggest a link with ‘spiking’, will be investigated by either local Gardaí supported by, or attached to, Divisional Protective Services Units.
As the Deputy will appreciate, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, as amended, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of Garda business, including the direction of investigation priorities and the management of the PULSE system. As Minister, I play no role in these independent policing functions.
I am advised by the Garda authorities of the following number of crime incidents reported to An Garda Síochána from 1 January 2022, in which the injured party claimed to have been ‘spiked’:
|
Year Reported |
No. Incidents |
|
2022 |
106 |
|
2023 (to date) |
* |
* Due to data protection, figures of less than 10 in a given year are not reported.
I am further advised by Gardaí that the figures contained in the table for 2022 are based on data obtained from PULSE on 14 February 2023. I am also informed by Gardaí that crime counting rules were not applied to the data and all figures are operational and liable to change. I understand from An Garda Síochána that counts are based on the presence of key text within the incident narrative and claims made by the injured party only and do not consider incident type or the result of any toxicology testing in relation to the incident.
