Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is good that we have a global view of it now, but it goes back to some of the criticisms I have heard. If a serious crime is reported, there is a formal engagement but when a basic matter is reported - which may not be a serious crime - people feel that the crime they have reported is just lost. They do not know if the investigation is closed, if there is no end to it or what the outcome is. There could be an accountability process from the public's side where An Garda Síochána should develop a public awareness initiative to encourage people to check where their reported crime is on the system so they know. This would provide an internal change for an ongoing and active awareness that there is movement on a case or that a case may need to be closed because the intelligence or information cannot be had. This could be the general feedback that people receive. It could be a burglary, for example, and there may be nothing for gardaí to act on. Alternatively there may be information that it is fed into an intelligence-led operation against a particular cohort, but the gardaí cannot act upon it immediately. It is better for the victim to know this. This lack of feedback could be some of the negative drift that is sometimes laid at the feet of An Garda Síochána, which may not be fair, but feedback would allow some external level of accountability where the public can have input so it can know an outcome, even if is not a final one. Have the commissioners looked at doing anything on that basis?