Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The joint committee is involved in an ongoing dialogue on the issue of rural crime. A few years ago the IFA carried out a survey in which one in three respondents said he or she had been the victim of crime in some way. There was an issue with the recording of crime and a sense that some crimes were not taken seriously. Other surveys produced similar findings for rural areas, but the official crime statistics gave a very different picture. What is Mr. Downeys view?