Many Crimes Are Unreported

With regard to the rural crime issue, the view that I and several others have that many crimes are going unreported are once again backed up today with news from the Garda Representative Association (GRA) that many families in rural Ireland are not reporting burglaries because of the fear that it will result in a major hike in insurance premiums. In addition, rural people are not reporting crimes because they do not know any local Garda anymore and they are reluctant to travel long distances to the nearest Garda station to report a crime or to confide in Gardaí that they do not know. These are only a few of the issues that I and others have been raising and they need to be addressed urgently. Announcements about new high powered cars and additional funds for overtime to police rural crime are welcome but it is local Gardaí collecting local knowledge from local people that is the key to solving this problem.