Sexual offences and fraud offences are among those found to have increased in the first six months of the year, compared to the first half of 2024, provisional crime statistics from An Garda Síochána have shown.
According to the garda figures, arson and public order-related crimes have also increased on the same period last year.
Nationally, the number of sexual offences reported had increased, with rape up four percent while reports of sexual assault were up seven percent.
However, reports of child sexual abuse material and related offences were down 16 percent in the first six months of 2025, when compared to the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, fraud offences saw an increase of 73 percent between January and June this year, the provisional statistics showing growth in the majority of most types of fraud offence.
According to gardaí, the biggest increase came from offences related to “Forgery/ False Instruments”, which were up 200 percent.
Shopping/ Online Auction-related fraud increased by 166 percent, while money laundering increased by 82 percent.
Reports of bogus tradesman were up 57 percent, followed by increases in accommodation fraud (up 22 percent) and “account take over fraud” (up 18 percent).
Other forms of fraud were found to have decreased, such as counterfeit notes and coins (down 88 percent), insurance fraud (down 45 percent), and so-called “phishing, vishing and smishing” (down 26 percent).
The latter category relates to tech scams involving fraudulent phone calls, voice messages and/or text messages, purporting to be from reputable sources seeking personal information.
When considering criminal damage and public order, the only incidents found to have increased on the same period in 2024 were arson (up 20 percent) and “public order offences” (up eight percent).
Overall reported criminal damage incidents decreased by 11 percent, alongside such notable public order offences as begging (down 33 percent) and rioting/violent disorders (down 36 percent).
The provisional statistics indicated that fewer demonstrations were recorded in the first half 2025 (627 compared to 683 in the first half of 2024, a fall of 8 percent), but noted that the short-term trending points to demonstrations increasing again.
Drug and weapon offences and domestic abuse offences were found to be roughly on par with the first half of 2024, while “crimes against the person”, such as murder, manslaughter and assault, were found to have decreased by two percent.
The largest fall in reports was recorded in the southern region (down eight percent).
The level of property crime also decreased across all crime types, according to the report, a development attributed by gardaí to operations Thor and Táirge, which target burglaries and organised retail crime respectively.
According to gardaí, in the first six months of 2025, over 37,000 arrests were recorded, while over 67,000 criminal charges were created alongside over 100,000 criminal summonses.
Approximately 3,200 adult cautions were administered, and over 6,500 referrals were made to the Juvenile Diversion programme.