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Christmas time is peak burglary season when house thefts rise by around 80 per cent. Dublin suffers from almost half the total number of burglaries in Ireland, according to an Eircom Phonewatch report. In 1999 there were 23,042 house burglaries in Ireland with 10,461 in the Dublin region

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A determined thief will get through anything but you can slow people down and stop opportunists from entering your property. Burglars prefer to work silently and unseen, so if you throw light on them and they are forced to make a noise while trying to get in, they are less likely to attempt a break-in.

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Breaking glass can attract attention so thieves are loath to do it - check the condition of window putty. If it's weak a thief can quietly cut the glass out. You need to assess the weak points in your house which you can do by imagining how you'd get in if you were locked out. External doors and windows are the obvious entry points but people have been known to enter through coal holes and roof lights.

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Garages and sheds with doors leading into the house are vulnerable areas and allow thieves to work their way into a property unseen. Don't leave out tools or implements that could help a burglar get in, like ladders which should be locked - perhaps to a wall ring - with a chain.

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External doors should have deadlocks on them - locks on a latch are relatively easy to open without a key by sliding a credit card between the door and frame. There are two principal types of door lock - mortise and rim.

Mortise locks are set into a rectangular hole in the side of the door and only the keyhole is visible at the front. This makes it difficult for the burglar to get at the actual lock mechanism. Rim locks are fitted into a cylinder through the door and the key plate is visible on the exterior.

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No amount of locks will improve security if the actual door or frame is weak, as these can be kicked or levered open. If there is a sizeable gap between the door and frame, a lever can be used to force the two apart. The strongest front doors are metal ones, but these are really practical only in commercial premises. Wooden doors should be at least 45mm thick. A flimsy door with a mortise lock embedded into it will make both the door and the lock vulnerable in an attack. Dead locks that can only be opened from both sides with a key make it harder for a burglar, who can't locate the key, to leave with large items if they have come in through a small opening.

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Exterior lights make it easier to see who's at the front door, through a spyhole, after dark. Door chains are useful but many can be broken if someone forces the door. An easy and cheap method of blocking a person's entrance is to have a wooden wedge to hand that can be kicked beneath the door before you open it. If you're going away, put valuables into the attic and chain down the access ladder elsewhere in the house - burglars generally want to be in and out very quickly and checking the attic takes time.

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If you have extremely valuable items it's worth taking photographs of them and having them engraved.

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If you are getting work done on the house and it is open to all comers, it may be worth changing the locks after they've left. Where extensive refurbishment is being carried out some homeowners go to the trouble of removing fireplaces . . . before an experienced team of burglars does.

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If you're throwing a party it may be worth going out on to the street every so often and checking your friends' cars. At a recent wedding, all the guests' cars were broken into, the thieves safe in the knowledge that the partygoers wouldn't disturb them for some time.

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Locking internal doors can restrict movement within the house but the thief may think a door is locked because something valuable's inside and break it down.

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When you go away, leave your keys with a neighbour and give them the alarm code if you have one. Also ask them to push any stuck post right in through the letterbox. If you know them really well, perhaps they could come in and draw your curtains at night.

If you're putting lights and a radio on to a timer switch, choose a timer that has different settings so that the electrics don't come on at exactly the same time every day.

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Don't make it easy to identify keys and yourself. Putting an address on a keyring is asking for trouble while having your car's logo on a keyring narrows down the options for a thief. Don't put your full name on a doorbell and it's best to just have your initials in the phone book.

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Despite all their security elements, cars are incredibly easy to break into so never leave piles of Christmas presents in view. Someone ran off with the family turkey one year when my granny stopped for a cup of tea, returning to find the car boot had been forced open.

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Everyone's reaction to a burglary is different and, while some burglars carry out a target and remove operation, taking only what they want and leaving everything else untouched, others will turn the place upside down. One friend, who had the first type of burglary, was annoyed but shrugged it off as one of life's events and was amazed when she received a call from Victim Support. She assumed they'd got the wrong number.

But others feel that they have been invaded to the core of their being and rely on such organisations to get them through. Each reaction is valid.