The Minister for Justice has told an Independent TD that “there is no category” in the PULSE computer system used by gardaí that “explicitly records the number of attempted child abductions”.
An Garda Síochána says that PULSE “records details of crime incidents on a central database” and that “this facilitates the categorisation of crime into various Incident Categories and Types.”
Offaly TD Carol Nolan, asked the Minister for Justice about the “number of reports made to An Garda Síochána on attempted child abductions and child abductions for the years 2019 to 2023 and to date in 2024”, asking that the Minister’s reply present the information in tabular form.
However, while Minister McEntee said that the CSO publish statistics on the offence of ‘Abduction of Persons under 16 years of age’, she clarified that there was no category in the system used by the gardaí that recorded the number of attempted child abduction
“I am further advised that there is no category in PULSE that explicitly records the number of attempted child abductions,” she said in a written reply to Deputy Nolan.
Deputy Nolan said that there was a “compelling need for the Gardai to immediately put in place a record of attempted child abductions. We need a firm evidentiary base that will enable us to establish if a growing trend is emerging, as many communities fear there is.”
The Minister said that the protection of children “is a top priority for my Department, the justice agencies and the whole of Government.”
“Legislation is in place that criminalises child abduction, and An Garda Síochána, in cooperation with social media companies and the public through the Child Rescue Ireland Alert (CRI Alert) system, work to ensure that any child that goes missing is found as quickly as possible,” she said.
“Child abduction is an offence under sections 16 and 17 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, which provides for an offence of abduction of a child by a parent (section 16) or by other persons (section 17). A person found guilty of an offence under these sections is liable on summary conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both and on conviction on indictment to a fine or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding seven years, or to both,” she said.
She pointed to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), who she said was “responsible for the compilation and publication of all crime statistics.”
She said she was “advised by An Garda Síochána that the CSO publish statistics on the offence of ‘Abduction of Persons under 16 years of age’.”
Gript has contacted the CSO to query the source of the data used by the CSO to produce statistics on the crime category above – which covers actual abductions, not attempted abductions.