It's one of a number of serious and violent crimes which increased last year.
Assaults and thefts were also up, as were attacks on members of the force according to new provisional figures from the Gardaí.
Murders and manslaughters also rose, as did sexual assault and rapes.
However former Detective Pat Marry says in some cases the crimes do not always occur in a particular year:
"All it takes is let's say one crime. Let's say somebody has been named has been an abuser in an institution and you have a flood of complaints, and that will put up the figures. It may be historic reporting crime from years back. It's not that the figures would reflect, let's say, an increase in sexual crime, particularly in a year being committed."
