One in five crimes reported to gardaí never recorded

18% of crimes reported to Gardaí in 2011 do not appear to have been recorded on the PULSE computer system, the CSO reports.

A review carried out by the CSO into the quality of garda crime data has also found that 3% of crimes recorded that year were incorrectly classified in the wrong crime category.

And 7% classified in a non-crime category, such as complaints, should have been classified as a crime.

The review was carried out following a Garda Inspectorate report last November, which highlighted systemic failures in how crimes were recorded on PULSE.

"It's very significant across groups," said Tim Lenehan from the CSO. "10% of robberies aren't' being recorded, but 20-25% of public order [offences] and thefts have not been recorded."

"The CSO isn't responsible for the production of the data, so we weren't able to determine why it's happening. Our task was to determine if the issue existed, and the extent."

The CSO suspended the recording of crime data in the wake of the report but has since resumed the practice, with figures from the last year released together today.