Policing in the Republic is not successful in securing convictions for crimes such as burglaries, thefts, fraud, assaults and arson, an Oireachtas Committee is to report shortly.
The Joint Committee on Justice Equality, Defence and Women's Rights yesterday heard that criminal conviction rates in the Republic in 2003 were as low as 4 per cent for such crimes.
Speaking as rapporteur for the committee, Joe Costello TD said the committee's report, due to be published within a month, would indicate that "policing is not successful in terms of the country at large".
Mr Costello added that a worrying aspect of the business community's submission was that a significant number of people thought there was little point in reporting such crime. It was important, he said, that "you just don't have the situation that people can't be bothered".
Director of the Small Firms Association Pat Delaney said the latest Garda figures showed that of 103,360 "headline" offences reported, the number of convictions was 4,411. "From those figures it appears that Irish criminals are living in a crime utopia with very little chance of ever being brought to justice."
