18 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps being taken to tackle the situation disclosed in the report on crime figures for 2000, which recorded an increase of almost 130% in the level of violent assaults; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6059/02]

52 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps being taken to tackle the situation disclosed in the report on crime figures for 2000, which recorded an increase of almost 130% in the level of violent assaults; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6056/02]

146 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps he has taken to reassure the general public in the wake of the ongoing and increasing levels of violent crimes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6216/02]

147 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he proposes changes in policing practice to address the increased levels of violent crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6217/02]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 52, 146 and 147 together.

First I will address the issue of the crime statistics for the year 2000. Then I will move on to a consideration of the relevant crime prevention and detection measures currently in place to tackle incidents of assault and other forms of, primarily, street violence.

The overall picture that emerged from the Garda annual report 2000, as published in January last, is very positive. Although precise comparisons with previous years is made somewhat difficult by the introduction of the new PULSE platform, the 2000 report states that "crime categorised as headline crime . . . reflects to a major degree what, in the past, was defined as indictable crime".

In this respect 73,276 headline offences were reported or known to the Garda in the year 2000 compared with 81,274 indictable offences in 1999. On this basis serious crime levels fell in 2000 by 9.8% on the previous year and by 27.3% since 1996. However, I am the first to accept that despite this outstanding performance not all individual types of offence display the same positive, downward trend in the year 2000.

With regard to the category of offence to which the Deputies drew attention, namely assault causing harm, the Garda annual report 2000 states that 1,703 such offences were recorded in that year. This is in comparison to 737 recorded in the previous year. Although the 2000 figure represents a very small proportion of total serious crime – in fact, only about 2.3% – this increase is a matter of concern.