A new Garda missing persons website is to be operating by the end of August.
The Garda website has been running since 1998 and has the highest readership of Garda publications. Up to now only missing
persons who have been the subject of a press release receive publicity on the website.
The press releases listed on the Garda site only date back to 1998, so people who went missing before then would not be included on the site. There are 17 people listed as missing in the press releases section of the Garda website, while the official number of missing persons is about 18,000.
A Garda spokesman said: "If a person went missing five years ago they wouldn't be on the site as it is now."
The new site will not be based on press releases and will form a separate section of the Garda website rather than being included in the press section. Families seeking publicity for their cases will be able to have them listed on the new site.
The Garda spokesman said the numbers listed on the site are small because many families do not want publicity. "People who have already gone through a traumatic time may not want to be the subject of attention," he said.
However, Father Aquinas Duffy, who set up the website www.missing.ws when his cousin Mr Aengus Shanahan went missing in February, finds this "unbelievable" and said that families of missing people desperately wanted and needed publicity.
"They need to actually see the name and photo of their loved one mentioned to know that efforts are being made on their behalf," he said.
ail TD Mr John McGuinness, a Fianna Fail TD who numbers the family of missing woman Ms Jo Jo Dullard among his constituents, has welcomed the Garda initiative, but said a number of his constituents have felt frustrated by the lack of focus on their missing loved ones.
"The Internet reaches out way beyond county and country and it is the best way of reaching the widest number of people. It allows people to maintain an ongoing focus after the initial publicity has gone."
Mr McGuinness has called on Government departments and the Garda to liaise to provide a service for these families.
"The Department of Social Family and Community Affairs has fallen down from the point of view of counselling and support for these families. At the very least a help-line should be set up for them," he said.
