THE CENTRAL STATISTICS office (CSO) has again postponed the publication of new crime statistics because An Garda Síochána has decided to extend a review of homicide data.

In June gardaí revealed that 89 homicides over a 14-year period were not counted due to an issue with the way they were recorded on the force’s Pulse database.

The CSO then suspended its publication of crime data until an internal garda review on the matter was completed.

The crimes were related to dangerous driving causing deaths. Garda management said the error had no impact on how theses crimes were investigated.

“Following discussions with An Garda Síochána, the Central Statistics Office has further deferred the publication of Recorded Crime statistics,” the CSO said in a statement today.

The CSO recognises that the deferral of these statistics may be a source of frustration to our users and we will advise of a revised publication timetable in due course.

“The publication of Recorded Crime statistics is dependent on the provision of data by An Garda Síochána to the CSO,” the statement concludes.

No crime stats have been published for this year. It is only the second time the office has stopped the publication of crime data since it began doing so in 2006.

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