SENIOR Garda officers will be concerned at the opinion poll's finding that a large proportion of the population believes the force is performing less well than in the past.
The representative sample of the public was asked: "in your opinion, are the Garda getting on top of the crime situation, better than in previous years, the same as in previous years, or worse than in previous years?" Of those with an opinion 31 per cent said "worse", 36 per cent "the same" and 30 per cent "better".
The Garda authorities may take heart from the latter figures, indicating that two thirds of the population believe the force is as effective as or more effective than before.
But the 31 per cent who believe the Garda is not coping with crime as well as in the past is a significant proportion.
In recent years the Garda has paid attention to public concerns about crime, with a series of high profile "initiatives" such as operations against rural crime in the west, and Operation Dochas in Dublin, which aims to increase the force's effort against drug dealers.
In many respects Operation Dochas, with its emphasis on increasing the number of uniformed officers on the streets, has been as much about public relations as pursuing drug pushers.
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has also got official clearance to hire a public relations consultant, at a salary of £30,000 a year.
Senior officers recognise that allaying public fears sometimes requires more than chasing and convicting criminals.
A handful of significant arrests and convictions in a rural area, for example, can sometimes end a mini crime wave in that region, at least until the offenders have served their sentences.
Analysis of the detail of the opinion poll shows that older people tended to believe the Garda was performing better. Of people aged 65 years or more, only 22 per cent thought the force had turned in a worse performance compared with between 28 per cent and 38 per cent for the other age groups. Those aged between 35 and 49 were the most likely to say the Garda was less effective than before.
The poll also shows that people in urban areas - which have the highest crime rates - were more likely to be unhappy with the Garda's performance than those in rural areas. In urban areas 35 per cent thought the Garda's performance worse, compared with 26 per cent in rural areas; 72 per cent of rural respondents thought the Garda's efforts were the same or better than before, compared with 62 per cent of those living in urban areas.
The latter figures were recorded despite the controversy about the efforts of the Garda authorities to change the way rural areas are policed.
The present plan is for 85 stations to be added to the "rural policing" scheme, by which local stations are closed down for long periods.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, said yesterday the Government was planning to "close down some stations by stealth", using a review of the scheme as an excuse