Clare Sees Over 80% Surge In Assault Causing Harm

The rate of serious assault in Clare has almost doubled in the space of a year.

This morning’s meeting of Clare’s Joint Policing Committee has heard of a worrying surge in violent crime in this county, with assault causing harm seeing a rise of more than 80% in the last twelve months.

At its quarterly meeting at Áras Contae an Chláir today, the Clare JPC, which is made up of Gardaí, local councillors, Oireachtas members and community representatives, heard that no corner of society is safe from serious crime.

Most alarmingly, the meeting was told that assault causing harm has seen a rise of 81% with 29 such incidents recorded between January and April of this year compared to 16 over the same period in 2023.

As has been seen consistently in recent months, burglary remains on the rise, this time seeing a 31% jump with 77 such incidents recorded in the first three months of 2024.

Road traffic crime was unsurprisingly a topic of discussion and the meeting heard that speeding in Clare is up by 15% so far this year.

Concluding her report, the Chief Superintendent noted that Clare is bucking the national trend in terms of fraud and economic crime as figures for this county are down by 18% while most other areas have seen an increase of late.