Galway bucking trend on break-ins

Galway is bucking the national crime-wave of increased burglaries.

Analysis of Central Statistics Office (CSO) crime figures show burglaries in Galway fell by ten per cent in a year.

However, there is an urban rural divide: a significant reduction in city burglaries accounts mostly for Galway’s overall falling burglary rate but there remain blackspots in the county such as Ballinasloe, where burglaries spiked by over 80% in the past year, and South Galway.

Burglaries may be down overall in the Galway Garda Division but the report also showed thefts are rising, with shops bearing the brunt of the thieving.

Thefts are up by four per cent in 2015, compared with the previous year but thefts from shops jumped by 16%.

There were some 662 thefts from shops in Galway in 2014, and that increased by 109 in 2015.

The total number of thefts, including from shops, vehicles and thefts from bars and from persons increased by 89 – up four per cent from 2,268 in 2014 to 2,357 in 2015.

Meanwhile, the number of burglaries perpetrated in Galway has fallen according to the CSO figures released this week.

There were some 890 burglaries detected in the Galway Garda Division in 2015, some 102 fewer than the 992 recorded in the corresponding twelve months.

PhoneWatch uses the CSO data to identify the burglary stats of every Garda station in the country.

Burglaries are as prevalent in Galway city as they are in rural areas in Galway, the analysis suggests, although the burglary rate is falling in the city.

For example, there were some 115 burglaries in the area covered by Salthill Garda Station, down by 20%; and there were 326 burglaries in the rest of the city, down 15% compared with 2014.

Tuam recorded 29% reduction in burglaries, down to 44 incidents last year; and Headford fell by 27% to 24 burglaries.

National figures show that burglaries are on the rise with two in every five Garda stations reporting increased levels of burglaries last year.