The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) comparing 2007 and 2008 show a rise in assaults and assaults causing harm. There have also been increases in the number of drug offences, burglaries, vehicle thefts, arsons, frauds and disorderly conduct offences.

According to the figures Donegal had the same rate of assault causing harm per 100,000 people as Cork City in 2008 and only Dublin north central and Dublin south central had higher rates.

But the number of incidents of drink driving has dropped significantly. Donegal was also the only county to have no detections of "drug driving" in 2008 and there were no detections over the two-year period.

There were six detections for the offence in neighbouring Sligo-Leitrim and 23 in Cavan-Monaghan in 2008 and 726 were recorded in the whole country, up from 269 in 2007. It is understood that pilot programmes for detecting so called drug driving have been rolled out in other garda divisions but not in Donegal.

Assaults causing harm increased from 169 in 2007 to 182 in 2008. The rate of 117 assaults per 100,000 population here compares to the national rate of 87. Donegal also has the second highest rate of detection for assaults causing harm at 89 per cent.

The chair of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee, which is the process of being established, Councillor Patrick McGowan said he was shocked at the very high rate of serious assaults here describing the figures as "startling and disturbing". "The figures raise more questions than they answer," he said.

"This is very serious to think that we are only comparable to urban centres like Cork and Dublin. But I would want to ask a lot of questions about these figures and would never take them as face value."
The number of assaults also rose climbing from 633 in 2007 to 663 a year later. The rate of assaults here is lower than only Cavan-Monaghan and north central and south central Dublin. Disorderly conduct is also on the increase rising from 2,360 to 2,461.

The number of rapes recorded in 2008 fell from 24 the year before to 20 but the rate per 100,000 people at 12.9 is much higher than the state average of 7.7 and is higher than every other division except Waterford and the two Dublin central divisions. The number of defilements of a child under 17 rose from six to nine and the crime has a rate here of 5.8 compared to the national average of 1.9, the highest in the country.
However, drink driving in the county has fell from 947 in 2007 to 725 in 2008 a drop of 23 per cent and driving licence and insurance offences have dropped from 888 to 644.

Arson rose from 53 to 86 a increase of almost 59 per cent and burglaries in the county have increased by eight per cent to 423 in 2008. Robberies in Donegal dropped from 23 to 20 in 2008 and aggravated burglary dropped from eight to four. Thefts dropped slightly but fraud and deception offences rose from 142 to 180. Vehicle theft climbed form 227 to 256. Incidents of stolen property increased from 19 to 25.
Drugs offences in the county are also on the increase climbing from 393 to 469, an increase of 19 per cent, but the rate of 301 per 100,000 is significantly lower than the national figure of 529.

Firearm offences dropped from 27 to 18 but the number of offensive weapons crimes rose from 40 to 55. Liquor licensing offences are also on the rise increasing from 159 to 217.
No comment was available from the Donegal garda division at the time of going to press.