18% of crimes reported to gardaí in 2011 do not appear to have been recorded on the PULSE computer system.

A review carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) into the quality of garda crime data has also found that 3% of crimes recorded that year were incorrectly classified in the wrong crime category.

And 7% classified in a 'non crime' category should have been classified as a crime.

The review was carried out following a Garda Inspectorate report last November, which highlighted systemic failures in recording practices on the Garda PULSE system.

The CSO has said its findings are broadly in line with those of the Garda Inspectorate report.

Publication of CSO crime figures was also suspended in the wake of that report but has now resumed - but the CSO says the findings of the review should be taken into account when interpreting the figures.

Tim Long, a statistician with the CSO crime department, spoke to Jonathan Healy on Newstalk Lunchtime to discuss the findings.