More than a third of all crimes recorded last year were dealt with by the 20 busiest Garda stations, according to recorded crime statistics released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.
At the other end of the scale, three-quarters of Garda stations recorded less than one crime per day last year while just under a third recorded fewer crimes than one a week on average.
Pearse Street station in Dublin city centre recorded the highest number of crimes in the State in all categories last year with 9,511 crimes recorded across all categories, apart from homicides and sexual offences, which were excluded due to potential identification concerns.
Pearse Street
The five busiest Garda stations in the country – Pearse Street, Store Street, Blanchardstown, the Bridewell and Tallaght, all of which are located in Dublin – each recorded more than 5,000 crimes last year.
As the statistics do not provide a population for the catchment areas covered by each Garda station it was not possible to give an indication of crime rates per head of population.
The next busiest station was Mill Street in Galway, where 4,843 crimes were recorded.
This was followed by Henry Street in Limerick with 4,725 recorded crimes; and Waterford, which recorded 4,720 crimes last year.
Dublin stations dominated in a number of crime categories including weapons and explosives offences with Tallaght (123), Store Street (118), Pearse Street (94) and Blanchardstown (92) recording the highest numbers of such offences.
However, Waterford and Henry Street in Limerick also featured within the top 10 busiest stations for weapons offences, recording 86 and 73 crimes respectively in this category.
The highest burglary rates were also recorded in Dublin stations, with 956 burglaries recorded in Tallaght, 781 in Blanchardstown and 579 in Dundrum.
Outside Dublin the highest levels of burglaries were recorded by Garda stations in Waterford, with 488 recorded offences, while two Garda stations in Louth – Drogheda and Dundalk – recorded 484 and 383 burglaries respectively last year.
Other stations outside Dublin that recorded more than 300 burglaries last year included Mill Street in Galway City (375); Bray, Co Wicklow (366); and Henry Street and Roxboro Road stations, both of which are in Limerick City, where 334 and 313 burglaries were recorded respectively.
Murder
The category of "attempts/ threats to murder, assaults and harassments" was topped by Pearse Street in Dublin with 390 such cases recorded. Waterford came second with 353 instances recorded last year, followed by Mill Street in Galway with 314.
Galway also ranked high for public order offences, recording 1,602 last year, second only to Pearse Street in Dublin, where 1,973 such offences were recorded.
The data released on the CSO website yesterday gives a breakdown of recorded crime in 12 crime categories, excluding homicides, sexual offences and cases of child abuse, neglect and endangerment, in 579 Garda stations around the country.
The statistics include figures for Garda stations that were operational for part of this year but which have since closed as part of an ongoing programme of Garda station closures .