I am informed by the Garda authorities that provisional statistics for 1989 indicate that the level of recorded indictable crime decreased in comparison with 1988 by approximately 3 per cent for the country as whole and by approximately 8 per cent in the Dublin metropolitan area.
While I am prepared to accept that in this country — as elsewhere — there may be a certain level of unreported crime, there is no evidence that it is substantial. Moreover, the likelihood is that the level of unreported crime does not vary greatly from year to year and that the statistics relating to recorded indictable crime, therefore, give a reliable picture of crime trends.
The gardai, of course, make every effort to encourage people to report crime. The fact that there is now increased structured contact between Garda and the public through the various community-based crime prevention schemes such as neighbourhood watch and community policing ought, if anything, to have led to an increased tendency to report crime.
In the circumstances, the Garda authorities do not consider that any real purpose would be served by undertaking a questionnaire of the nature referred to. Indeed, given that responses to such a questionnaire would be provided outside any legal framework, it is doubtful, to say the least, whether it would provide reliable statistics about the incidence of crime.
