Mr. Mark Toland:

In Crime Investigation and Changing Policing in Ireland, we are talking about specialism. There are certain crimes that we would not expect a newly trained garda or someone without detective experience to investigate. If my daughter was the victim of a serious sexual assault, I would want a detective trained in the investigation of sexual assaults to investigate it. Domestic violence was another area we examined in Crime Investigation, and again we found that there were very few arrests. Sometimes the crimes were not always correctly recorded. We have recommended the creation of a specialist unit in a Garda division that investigates serious sexual assaults, domestic violence cases, and child sexual abuse. The Commissioner has committed to introducing those units. We are waiting for the dates, but three of those units are likely to be formed fairly soon, one of which we believe will be in Cork city. In the future, when a victim comes into a Garda station that unit should be contacted and if it is a sexual assault, a specially trained officer, not just a detective, should be trained in the investigation of sexual assaults. Currently, if a victim goes to the front counter and reports a crime, whether it is the theft of a newspaper or a rape, it is very likely the garda at the front counter will take on the role of investigating that crime.