Wexford Councillors Call For Nationality Of Criminals To Be Published

Wexford County Councillors have voted to call on the Minister for Justice to publish crime stats broken down by nationality and in some cases ethnicity.

It follows a motion brought by Sinn Fein councillors Tom Forde and Aoife Rose O'Brien who say displaying the data will help dispel myths around the perception of crime.

They want to see evidence based policymaking based on official statistics rather than speculation or misinformation.

Councillor Forde says we need to have the numbers so we can come up with solutions if needed:

"The public deserve to have this information and we should all know where the criminality is stemming from in our communities.

"If we have this information, I believe it might dispel some myths but it'll also give us the opportunity to do work within elements of the community to address any negative behaviour."

Councillor Forde says his belief is that immigration is not leading to a rise in crime and he believes the numbers will back that up:

"If the statistics were to show otherwise, I would hold my hand up no problem and equally say that the problems would have to be addressed but I simply don't believe that's the case.

"I believe that any Irish person that's born here is entitled to have respect for their culture and belief so long as it's not harming anyone else.

"It's a respect based approach and fairness has to be key in there as well."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.