The public perception of An Garda Síochána has fallen since it became known that 1.5 million breath tests had been falsified and there had been 14,700 wrongful road traffic convictions.

Fewer people believe An Garda Síochána is well managed (-6%), modern and progressive (-2%), community focused (-2%), friendly or helpful (-2%), or provides a world class police service (-5%).

The decline occurred between the first and second quarters of the year, according to the gardaí's own survey.

The road traffic controversies became known at the end of March this year with the Garda's two reports into the issues released earlier this week.

There was no change in the public's attitude towards the Garda's ability to tackle crime while fewer people said they had been victims of crime over the same periods (Q1 to Q2 2017).

The results are contained in the Garda Public Attitudes Survey, published today. The survey was carried out by Amarach research.

The figures are more positive when compared on a yearly basis.

Satisfaction among victims of crime in 2017 (Q2) who reported them to gardaí was 9% higher than in 2016, up to 61%, while over half (56%) of victims felt the right amount of information had been provided to them, an increase of 9% on 2016.

There were also reductions in the numbers of those who believe crime to be a serious or very serious problem, locally and nationally.