Gardaí have said levels of domestic violence and sexual abuse reached "an all-time" high over the Christmas period.
The Policing Authority was told today that there were over 1,600 reports over the holidays while the figure is normally around 1,200.
The Assistant Commissioner in charge of serious and organised crime told the meeting however that the callback rate from gardaí, the response to victims, remained the same in spite of the increase in the crime.
The authority was also told that the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual abuse is also increasing year-on-year, and that gardaí believe this may be down to the fact that there is less tolerance of the crime and people are more willing to report it.
Gardaí also said they are examining why there has not been a sanction-based outcome in thousands of domestic violence cases and why the crime is not being detected.
They said they have analysed in detail 135,000 cases and this shows that the reluctance of victims to come forward, report the crime and stay with the process through to conviction is a major factor.
Victim engagement 'crucial to detection'
An Garda Síochána's Chief Information Officer Andrew O'Sullivan said a major report into on the issue is now being finalised, but that "securing victim engagement that they can be part of the process is crucial to detection".
Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis appealed to people to come forward and talk to gardaí, family members, friends or a solicitor.
She also said that gardaí prioritise all cases where a victim has been revictimised three times within three months.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said there was a correlation between vulnerability and victimisation and that this violence was predominantly happening to people with mental health, isolation and addiction issues.
Mr Harris said those people were at higher risk and insisted gardaí would respond "in a professional and thorough way to protect any individual".
'No barrier' to sex workers coming forward - Harris
Commissioner Harris stressed that in the case of sex workers, gardaí would investigate organised crime and sex trafficking, because criminals were using sex workers as a commodity in coercive relationships.
"If you are a sex worker, it’s not criminalised. There is no barrier to coming forward," he said, adding: "The sex worker has not broken the law."
The commissioner also said that over the last two to three decades, the prevalence of violent pornography on the internet has had an impact on some of the sexual offending.
He said it illustrated a modus operandi and how the crime is being perpetrated.
"The normalisation of violence against women through violent pornography, adult porn, is an unregulated space, unpoliced, because it is widely available to anyone with a computer or smartphone, and gardaí focus on child abuse, he said.
Gardaí examining large number of fraud reports
Gardaí also said they are examining a large number of fraud reports received from financial institutions which has enabled them to recognise trends and organised crime groups.
There is a mandatory obligation on banks and other institutions to report all incidents of fraud to gardaí, even if the victim does not want to, and has been compensated.
This "secondary source" has provided gardaí with "rich information", but Assistant Commissioner Willis stressed however that there is no backlog in relation to individual victims who have reported fraud.
However, she said gardaí are trying to provide a more efficient system for the banks to report and are devising a special portal.
The Chief Information Officer pointed out that many people who are scammed €100 for a fraudulent concert ticket for example do not report the crime to gardaí as they are often compensated by the banks
Andrew O’ Sullivan said, however, that gardaí are interested in discovering if there were 500 or 5,000 other people similarly scammed and if an organised crime group is behind the fraud.
He also said the issue led to a suspension of the publication of the crime figures but that this is due to resume next month
Assistant Commissioner Willis also said gardaí have links with 39 countries and Interpol, so the earlier the victim reports the fraud, the better chance they have of getting it back.
She said gardaí succeed in 30% of cases.
Some €5.3m has been recovered abroad and returned to victims here, while gardaí have succeeded in freezing €630,000 in banks in Ireland and returning that to victims abroad.
Children threatened by organised crime groups
Deputy Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has said that children are being threatened by organised crime groups and that some people bringing children to school are wearing bullet proof jackets.
He told the Policing Authority that while these are "quite unique circumstances" it would necessitate the creation of an intelligence record on the child.
Mr Kelly said that in a case like that where "the child themselves was a target…we would need to know the detail of the child".
He was responding to questions from the authority about intelligence records and PULSE records being created for children.
He also said that organised crime groups are involved in all sorts of intimidation against each other.
Gardaí told the authority that the number of intelligence records have been reduced over the past four years and had dropped from over 400 to seven.
Elaine Byrne, Chairperson of the Policing Authority said this was the first time she had heard this reason for intelligence files being created on children.
She said they had previously been created on children who were days and weeks old and they had PULSE records which followed them for their lives.
She also said "there is a new regime now" and what happened in 2014 is not happening now and "absolutely there has been an improvement".
