The number of drink-spiking incidents reported to Gardaí has nearly doubled this year.

New figures released to Newstalk show that 40 people have reported being spiked so far this year – up from the 22 reports made in all of 2021.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre CEO Noeline Blackwell said spiking should not be tolerated by anyone.

“It is concerning because, when someone is spiking somebody else’s drink, what they are doing, really, is a form of poisoning," she said.

“They are secreting a substance into a person’s body which they don’t know or expect.

“It is not funny; it is not a prank and it is really harmful. It is a serious criminal offence as well.”

The Garda figures also show that 24 people reported being spiked with a needle in the first nine months of the year.

Ms Blackwell said needle spiking is a very new phenomenon.

“Over the last couple of years reports have started coming into the Gardaí and indeed in other countries as well of people using needles to inject some form of drug into people with a view to making them unwell or with a view to paralysing them temporarily or whatever,” she said.

It comes as the Rape Crisis Network Ireland CEO Cliona Saidléar said centres around the country fielded around 50,000 calls last year.

The network’s annual report finds that 9% of the survivors contacting it were under the age of 19, while 83% of the alleged perpetrators were over 18.