Mr. Mark Toland:

Domestic violence is referred to as a volume crime because of the sheer volume of calls. Given that most police services would have more domestic violence calls than many other crimes such as burglary, it is a major demand generator. Research shows that a person who has the guts to come forward and report a domestic violence incident may have been subjected to 30 other incidents of abuse or physical violence. It is a big step for such a person to make a telephone call or walk into a Garda station to report an incident.

In Ireland, the first officer who turns up at a case is the officer who will investigate it and will continue with the investigation. Most other policing services have found that this does not always work and have dedicated domestic violence investigation teams. The first officer does his or her best with the investigation and makes an arrest if there is a crime. This officer then hands the case over to an investigation unit. Gardaí do not have this luxury, and given that a young officer who attends a scene to investigate a crime may have another 200 cases under investigation at the same time, there is an issue regarding volume.

We spoke to some victims who had a very good response from empathetic gardaí who turned up, and who called back at a later date to ensure the victim was okay and referred the victim to support services. We also had bad examples in which victims felt they were discouraged from reporting an incident. We found many incidents that were not recorded correctly on PULSE, which is a worry. Some gardaí have admitted their failure to record domestic violence where a person had a physical injury. They told us they are frustrated with the system and the way crime rates are allocated in Ireland. They were very honest with us in admitting to a serious discipline offence, namely, the failure to record a crime.

It is often difficult to get victims of domestic violence to come to court. Sometimes they just want the perpetrators taken away, which I understand. Although not every domestic violence victim wants to go through a criminal justice service, they need to be reassured that the crime will be recorded. We found that where a victim was not going to give a written statement, the crime was not always dealt with properly. Given that the recording of domestic violence on our computer system is not great, we found it very difficult to identify the number of calls received regarding domestic violence across Ireland, the number of incidents in which a physical crime is or is not committed, detection rates and the outcomes of the cases that go through the criminal justice system. There is an absence of data. They are not measured.

While there is no risk assessment in place in Ireland, we welcome the news that the Garda Síochána is to introduce a risk assessment process, so when the first garda turns up, he or she will ask far more questions about the history of offending, whether there are children involved and the vulnerabilities of the victim. Most other police services have a criminal justice partners' group that looks particularly at men of violence - most domestic violence, unfortunately, involves men committing offences - and the needs of victims, given that violence tends to escalate.

That is an absence in Ireland and one of our recommendations states there needs to be a criminal justice partners group to actually look at individual cases.

As for positive action, if an offence has been committed, there is an onus on an individual garda who turns up to take positive action and in my currency, that is an arrest and taking in a person. We certainly found many occasions where there were opportunities to arrest but those opportunities were not always taken. We think it is a really important aspect of policing, in that the person concerned has had the guts to pick up a telephone and to ask for help. The first officer who attends is important. If the officer is positive, tells the person he or she will support the person and brings in other organisations to help, one will get people who will come forward and help one with a prosecution. At present, however, it is inconsistent across Ireland with some very good experiences and some very poor experiences.