A shortage of Gardaí and a lack of prison spaces are being blamed for spiking levels in rural crime.
A recent RedC poll in The Irish Farmers' Journal found 38% of farmers said they were victims of burglary.
According to the publication, over 40,000 farms ave been robbed in the past five years, with 14,000 in the past year alone.
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Of those a third have been targeted more than once.
Leinster – excluding Dublin – has suffered most, with over half of farmers there reporting a robbery.
Irish Independent crime journalist Paul Williams has a theory about re-offending rates: