Mr. Pádraig Dalton:

If we go back to the inspectorate report in 2014, there was a broad range of issues. There were issues with classification of certain crimes. Some crimes were not classified in the right category. There were some cases where crimes were not captured on PULSE at all. There were some duplication issues. There was no clarity on the application of the crime recording rules. The crime recording rules effectively constitute a manual that provides absolute clarity. They are supposed to provide clarity on how any particular crime is supposed to be accounted for in a recorded crime system like PULSE. Obviously, they have these crime recording rules in other jurisdictions. We are working continuously with An Garda Síochána to try to improve the quality of its data for its purposes first of all because it needs good quality data from PULSE for its own reasons. Then we would become downstream beneficiaries. One of the things we are working on in particular involves the crime recording rules. We are trying to encourage them and we will work with An Garda Síochána to develop this crime recording rules document.

There are two other things we want An Garda Síochána to do. We want it to introduce a formal quality management framework. The quality division in the CSO has met An Garda Síochána to explain what the quality management framework would be like and to outline how it might go about improving the quality of the data on PULSE over time. Finally, we really feel it is important that An Garda Síochána appoints a single person at a very senior level to take point on data-related issues. At the minute, An Garda Síochána has an interim chief data officer. I think the intention is make that a permanent post. This is incredibly important for us but it is important that this role be at a very senior level in An Garda Síochána so that the person can influence the development and the move towards improving crime data.

Under reservation is a term used by EUROSTAT for government finance statistics. If EUROSTAT has a concern about a country's government finance statistics, it can put this reservation on the data. What it effectively means is that there are concerns about the data and EUROSTAT cannot fully stand over the data. We were left in this situation where there was a vacuum. Our concern is that vacuums normally get filled with anecdotal information or poor quality or subjective data. The longer a vacuum is left, the greater the risk that this occurs so we took the decision to resume publication but we needed to be clear with users that there was an issue with the data. That is why we put in the classification "Under Reservation".

What we have also done to help users is produce three quality reports on the data coming from PULSE. We try to give a clear signal to users that the figures on a certain classification coming from PULSE may well be an understatement, for example, burglaries. We give a clear statement in the quality report as to our assessment of the accuracy of the particular statistic on whichever part or type of crime it is. We could have left a vacuum and said we were not going to publish but we felt transparency was important. It is the best data that can be published right now.