There has been a 44% increase in robbery, extortion and hijacking offences in the northwestern region of the country, according to new data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Across the whole country, there has been a 26% rise in these types of offences when comparing the last quarter of 2023 and 2022.

Robbery, extortion and hijacking offences were up 39% in the southern region and 21% in both the Dublin metropolitan and eastern regions comparing these time periods.

Theft

Theft and related offences were up 12% across the whole country comparing the last quarter of 2023 with the same period in 2022.

Again, the largest increase was seen in the northwestern region (22%).

Theft and related offences rose 19% in the eastern region, 14% in the southern region and 8% in the Dublin metropolitan region.

Public order

Public order and other social code offences were down 8% across the country and these incidences fell in all areas.

The largest decrease was recorded in the northwestern region (10%).

There was a 9% fall in the Dublin metropolitan region, a 7% drop in the southern region and a 3% decrease in the eastern region.

Sexual offences

In total, sexual offences were down 11% when comparing the last quarter of 2023 with the last quarter of 2022.

In the eastern region, sexual offences were down 16%, with the same type of crime down 11% and 12% in the Dublin and southern regions respectively.

Sexual offences decreased 6% in the northwestern region.

Homicide and related offences were down 19% across the country when comparing the end of last year with 2022.