Missing Persons No’s Up 250% from 1996 to 2004

30th January 2006, Press Release

The number of people reported missing to Gardai grew from 1444 in 1996 to 5050 in 2004, which equates to an increase of 250%.  Referring to the statistics provided to her by the Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform as “shocking” and “graphic”, Deputy Catherine Murphy (Ind) has highlighted the urgent need for a 24hr Missing Person’s Helpline to be established in replacement of the one whose funding was withdrawn by Minister McDowell in March 2005.

“Its extremely worrying that such a huge rise in the numbers of missing persons has occurred but instead of tackling this escalating problem the Government is withdrawing funds from services designed to assist missing people and their families.” – Murphy.

The number of people who remained untraced out of the 1848 reported missing in 1997 was 3, however this figure is starkly contrasted with the 72 who remained untraced at the end of 2005, 4319 had initially been reported missing during this year. During the period in which the Missing Person’s Helpline had been in operation, 2002 – March 2005, the amount of people left untraced, relative to the total number of persons reported missing, at the end of each year show a reducing trend, the years between the establishment of the Missing Person’s Helpline in 2002 the percentage of people initially reported missing who remained untraced at the end of each year reduced from 2.4% in 2002, to 1.5% in 2003, and again down in 2004 to 0.85%, this was the lowest figure since 1999 (0.83%). Worryingly, this trend in the reduction of the numbers who remained untraced at the end of each year was broken last year coinciding with the closing of the Missing Person’s Helpline on 31st March 2005.

“The facts speak for themselves” stated Murphy, “there’s a significant increase in the numbers of people being reported missing and instead of tackling this issue the Government is withdrawing what little support it gives to organisations such as victim support. This is unacceptable.” ENDS

(Source: Minister for Justice, Equality, & Law Reform – Written Answer 132 & 133, 26th January 2006)

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Posted by admin on January 30, 2006. Filed under In the Dáil,Law, Justice, Defence & Policing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.