The number of vehicles being stolen across the Republic is beginning to increase again after the crime plummeted for years in line with the country’s economic fortunes.
New figures obtained by The Irish Times show that for the first time since the economy peaked and crashed in 2008, the decline in car thefts has halted.
The reversal in national trends is being driven by Dublin, where the number of vehicles reported stolen in the first half of this year rose 9 per cent. That follows a decline of more than 50 per cent in the six-year period from 2008 to 2013.
Garda sources said while the figure was “far from alarming” it was regarded as a turning point. “If you look at everything that has happened with car crime since 2008, it’s all been down,” said one senior source in Dublin. “The reduction in some areas has been more than half. So when we see that fall stopping and nudging up again, we’d regard that as pretty significant.”
Another senior source urged caution. “The increase across the country is only about 1 per cent (in the first half of the year) but Dublin has turned first and it’s turned a good bit.
“We’d expect most other places to follow now and there is some evidence that has happened in the second half of the year. We’ll know more when we have figures for the full year.”
An analysis of the latest set of data available for the first six months of the year shows: Some 2,035 vehicles were reported stolen in Dublin in the first half of this year (2013), up 9 per cent.
The Dublin figures account for 53 per cent of all car thefts nationally in the first half of the year.
The “Dublin metropolitan region western” Garda division is the Republic’s car-theft black spot, with 721 cars reported stolen there in the first half of this year.
The DMR west rate of car theft is higher than all of the cars stolen in the Garda’s western region and southern region combined, which cover counties Clare, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Longford, Cork city and county, Limerick city and county and all of Kerry.
Dublin region
The least number of car thefts were reported in the Sligo-Leitrim division, with 19 crimes reported across those counties in the first six months of the year.
Outside of Dublin, the Garda divisions of Meath and Limerick saw most car thefts in the first half of this year, with 215 and 244 such crimes reported respectively.
In 2004 the number of vehicles reported stolen in the Garda’s Dublin Metropolitan Region – made up of six divisions – reached a record of 4,489.
The figure fluctuated a little to 2008, when 3,866 vehicles were reported stolen in the capital.
However, from 2008 to the end of last year (2013) the number of vehicles thefts in Dublin fell year on year.
Thefts reached a low of 1,865 last year (2013); a 52 per cent fall in the crime in Dublin from 2008 to 2013.
Nationally, the situation was similar from 2008 to 2013; falling by 49 per cent, or from 14,307 reported cases to 7,363.
The number of vehicles reported stolen across the State in the first half of this year was 3,867.
This represented a marginal increase of less than 1 per cent but was the first time since 2008 that the numbers had not fallen significantly.
And because Dublin accounts for more than half of all vehicle thefts across the State, the 9 per cent increase in the capital in the first half of this year is regarded as a strong indication of what lays ahead for the rest of the country.
