Gardaí must stick to the rules in recording crime in order to guarantee quality data, a high-level expert group has said.

A NATIONAL survey considered crucial to establishing the true levels of crime in Ireland will not be conducted until 2008 — six years after the Department of Justice was urged to commission it.

CRIME statistics face a major overhaul under a new system being planned by the Central Statistics Office.

The number of murders, sexual assaults and assaults has fallen in the first three months of this year, according to figures published today.

AN expert group has been set up to try and make official crime figures more accurate.