Survey find 25% of houses burgled

MORE than 25 per cent of houses in the Dun Laoghaire area have been burgled, according to a crime survey by the local Progressive…

MORE than 25 per cent of houses in the Dun Laoghaire area have been burgled, according to a crime survey by the local Progressive Democrats TD, Ms Helen Keogh.

The survey also shows that 36 per cent of those whose cars were stolen did not report this crime to the Garda. Some 13 per cent of respondents have been mugged in the past year, 16 per cent have had their cars stolen in the same 12 months and 67 per cent felt more intimidated in their own area after dark than they did a year ago.

Ms Keogh laid she sent a questionnaire to 15,000 households in Dun Laoghaire, Ballybrack, Killiney and Monkstown, and received 1,693 replies. Of that number "a massive 87 per cent said they felt that the Government was not tackling Dublin's crime problem effectively," she said.

Among respondents, 74 per cent also considered that local crime had increased in recent years, while 29 per cent have had their car vandalised or broken into and 9 per cent have seen evidence of drug use in the area in the past year.

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The survey also shows low levels of reporting of crime, and Ms Keogh said "this casts very serious doubt over the `official' levels of crime which the Justice Department publishes".

Some 63 per cent of those who saw evidence of drug use did not report it to the Garda. A further 31 per cent of those whose cars had been vandalised failed to notify their local station and 8 per cent of those mugged did not report the assault either.