I am satisfied that the crime statistics published in the annual reports of the Garda Síochána are accurate reflections of the level and nature of crimes reported or known to the Garda in the year to which they refer. I am also satisfied that crime levels have decreased dramatically in recent years.
I agree with the Deputy that it is useful to have another way of gauging crime levels and that is why my Department developed a crime and victimisation module for inclusion in the CSO's quarterly national household survey for the last quarter of 1998. The main topics covered included the incidence, type, location and other relevant aspects of crime in the past year; whether crimes were reported to the Garda, household security, and people's perceptions in relation to crime and safety.
I understand the relevant information was collected in the three month period from September to November 1998 from a sample of 39,000 households. I am informed that the results should be available in the middle of this year, subject to satisfactory progress with processing and analysing the data.