Four in 10 crime victims are unhappy with their experience with the Garda Síochána in the wake of their ordeal, an official report revealed today.

THE Government yesterday signalled it was considering mandatory jail terms for criminals who break into people’s homes.

Forty-five organisations presenting frontline services to victims of crime were granted funding to the tune of more than €1m last year.

MORE than e1 million in funding was provided to groups supporting crime victims last year, including 25 groups helping those affected by domestic abuse.

The criminal justice system must be more sympathetic to the trauma felt by victims of crime and their families, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern claimed today.

Fine Gael called today for Government support to ensure a bill enshrining in law the rights of victims of crime can be passed.

NEARLY €1 million was paid out last year by the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime, its annual report showed yesterday.

VICTIMS of crime must be informed when offenders are released or granted bail under plans for new legislation launched yesterday.

ALMOST 2,000 calls were made to the crime victims’ helpline this year, figures have revealed.

Up to 250 tourists, mostly Europeans, were mugged in Ireland in 2006, figures showed today.

More than €1m of public money is to be spent on victim support groups this year, the Government announced today.

IT is more than 20 months since the Department of Justice withdrew funding from Ireland’s national missing persons helpline, run by Victim Support, but there has been no sign of a replacement service.

FAMILIES and friends of more than 4,000 people who go missing every year believe the Government is ignoring their plea to re-establish a national missing persons’ helpline.

IN March of this year a Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime was set up by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell.

Two groups working with the victims of crime are to receive funding of almost €80,000.

It is an ill-considered move to leave Victim Support in the financial limbo the organisation will find itself in when State funding ceases at the end of this month.

SUPPORT services for victims of crime look set for a major shakeup with the announcement last night of an expert body to sort out the troubled area.

A new specialist commission is to be set up to support victims of crime, it emerged tonight.