asked the Minister for Justice the number of people of no fixed abode committed to prison for each of the last five years, the number of these convicted under (i) the Vagrancy Acts, (ii) the Licensing Acts, and (iii) any other legislation.
Written Answers. - Imprisonment of Vagrants.
189.
The only way in which the information requested by the Deputy could be obtained at present would be by examination of each person's individual file and since a total of 23,083 persons were committed to custody in the past five years the Deputy will appreciate that this would involve such an amount of staff time that it would not be justified.
It is hoped that a study on the intended computerisation of data in relation to prisons and offenders which would make it relatively easy to obtain information of this kind, will commence in the near future.