Official Garda statistics which show a drop in crime may be misleading because gardai in Dublin and other urban divisions have been unable to use the new PULSE computer system for the first six months of this year.
It is understood crimes such as car theft, criminal damage by vandalism, assault and larceny from cars are not included in the statistical analysis of crime trends in major urban areas.
As a result, statistics which are being released by the Garda can claim continuing downward trends in urban areas which in turn leads to claims of national reductions in crime.
The cost of the system has been officially put at between £23 million and £50 million but some sources say the actual costs maybe eventually be as much as £80 million.
PULSE is the largest computer network in the State and was designed to provide a comprehensive database of crime with instant access to some 1,400 terminals in all but the smallest Garda stations.
However, there have been considerable difficulties in inputting information to the system. Gardai have had to complete detailed forms - some up to five pages - and send them by Swiftpost to an inputting centre in north Dublin.
According to senior Garda sources, the crime statistics recorded in Dublin and some other large urban areas have been kept manually - handwritten on paper - because it has not been possible to input all information about crime into the computer.
But these urban figures relate only to "serious" crimes such as murder, rape and sexual assault, burglary, armed robbery and mugging. The Garda's figures for the first six months of this year show decreases of between 2 per cent and 9 per cent in the major urban divisions. Nationial statistics, therefore, show a 1 per cent decrease in crime from January to June on the same period for 1999. However, The Irish Times has learned that in the western seaboard divisions the gardai have been using the new PULSE system and have been inputting all types of crime including the "non-indictable" offences such as the "unauthorised taking" of cars which are excluded from much of the urban figures.
In the west, the statistics provided by the gardai using the new computer system show fluctuations that are strikingly different from the uniform minor reductions in many of the urban areas. These include Sligo which records a 71 per cent increase in crime; Clare which records a 37 per cent decrease; Tipperary which records a 23 per cent decrease; Mayo, a 30 per cent increase; Galway West, a 41 per cent increase; Limerick, a 17 per cent decrease; and Roscommon/ Galway East, a 17 per cent decrease.
Sources in the west said it was decided to input all data about crime into the PULSE system because the system is designed to operate as a database for all crime and not just the serious types of crime recorded in urban areas.
The difficulties in introducing a complex data handling system nationally are expected to continue. It remains to be seen if it will be physically possible to input all incidents encountered by gardai in the course of their duty and it is not yet clear how this will affect the management and use of the system.