The number of victims of crime being referred to Victim Support by gardaí has more than halved since 1999, according to the organisation's annual statistics for 2002, writes Conor Lally.
Just three per cent of people who fell victim to crime last year received assistance from Victim Support.
The organisation believes that since the introduction of the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act, gardaí are more unwilling to refer crime victims for fear of breaching confidentiality.
In November 2001 responsibility for referrals switched from a garda liaison officer working within each of Victim Support's regional offices, to individual investigating officers.
Victim Support believes individual officers do not have a sufficient level of expertise to deal with referrals, resulting in the fall off in referral rates.
In 1999 gardaí referred 5,974 victims to Victim Support, out of a total of 7,714 cases dealt with by the organisation. That figures has reduced steadily since. In 2000 the organisation dealt with 7,119 cases, of which 5,322 were referred by gardaí. In 2001 it dealt with 5,723 cases, of which 3,421 were referred by gardaí.
In 2002 Victim Support dealt with 4,861 cases. Of those, 2,850 were referred by gardaí with the remaining 2,011 referrals coming from other sources, usually self referrals.
It is so concerned at current trends it has just completed a series of seminars in every Garda division to make rank and file gardaí aware of its services. It also entered into a partnership agreement with gardaí last February aimed at fostering closer co-operation between the two.
The organisation's head of operations, Ms Catherine Lynch, believes the most recent Garda crime statistics are inaccurate. Anecdotal evidence suggests even the victims of very serious crime are unwilling to report it, she said.
"Based on the calls we get from people who are not referred to us by gardaí we would say that there is an impression amongst the public that the force is very under resourced and that it is financially stretched in so many ways," she said.
Many members of the public had become "disillusioned" with the Irish criminal justice system because a number of high profile cases have not been pursued through the courts by the DPP in recent months, Ms Lynch said.
One caller to the organisation's Dublin officer this week complained a friend of his had been badly beaten up during an attack in Dublin city centre last week, during which both of his legs were broken.
When the man rang gardaí from his hospital bed to report the incident he was told to call into a Garda station to make a statement when he was well enough.
Another caller said while she and a number of friends were out for the day recently their bags were stolen. They reported the incident to gardaí. When they called to the Garda station a week later to see if any progress had been made they discovered the investigating garda had not logged the incident, and could not find any record of it.
Some 94 of respondents to the Garda Public Attitude Survey in 2002, who were the victims of crime, indicated they did not receive information on the services of Victim Support. Of the six per cent who were made aware of its services, half agreed to be referred.