An eagerly awaited report from a senior Garda team set up to investigate crime detection rates in the force's Waterford district has still not been completed six months after allegations first surfaced that the figures may have been tampered with.
The investigation was started in February after it was claimed that some figures compiled in Waterford were not accurate and that some recorded crimes were reported as solved even though nobody had been charged with the offences and there was no prospect of a successful prosecution.
A leaked memo, alleged to have come from the divisional headquarters in Waterford, appeared to show that some crimes could be considered to have been detected even if no conviction or court proceedings had taken place as long as gardaí were satisfied they knew the identity of those responsible and that the investigation had gone as far as it was likely to go.
It was also alleged that if an investigation was carried out and a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who then decided that there were no grounds for a prosecution, this, too, could be recorded as a "detected" crime.
It is now understood that the report has been sent back to the senior Garda officer responsible for compiling it along with a request that he carry out a further examination of the way the system for recording "detected" crime has been operated in other Garda divisions.
The annual Garda crime report has consistently shown that the crime detection rates in the Republic are among the highest in Europe.