Vol. 448 No. 7
11 Mr. O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Justice, in relation to the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, if she will outline for each calendar year since the commencement of the Act the number of times the Criminal Courts have and have not imposed consecutive sentences on persons convicted of indictable offences or on offenders who committed a further indictable offence or offences whilst on bail; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2701/95]
Court statistics do not separately record the number of cases in which the section of the 1984 Act to which the Deputy is referring — that is, section 11 (1) — is applied by the Judiciary. I find that, as things stand, court statistics appear to be maintained primarily for the purpose of measuring activity levels and thereby measuring resource requirements for the courts. The Deputy will understand that this is the situation as I have inherited it.
I acknowledge, as my Department does and I am sure Deputies generally do, that there is a real need for a more sophisticated and informative statistical system for courts and indeed for the criminal justice system as a whole.
The Department has planned to expand the use of information technology in court offices which will allow for the recording and retrieval of much more detailed statistics in the future. In planning the expanded use of information technology for the courts area close attention is being paid to the need for integrating statistics between the courts, prisons and Garda Síochána. In this regard, the Garda Síochána Research Unit which was established in September 1994 to undertake practical and targeted research of relevance to a modern police force, is now examining the question of integrating the statistics which will be provided by the different branches of the criminal justice system.
It will take time, expertise and commitment to get us to the stage where we have an adequate set of criminal justice statistics coming on stream each year. I will be interested in securing progress in this matter in any way I can.
I have no reason to believe that the courts are not applying the provisions of section 11 of the 1984 Act in the manner intended by the Oireachtas, but if the Deputy has any indications to the contrary and provides me with details, I shall be glad to consider whether any further changes in the law may be required.
I have grave misgivings about the reply to Question No. 9. Does the Minister accept the necessity to have a fundamental review of bail laws? Has she received the Law Reform Commission's interim report on the matter? Does she accept that while there are constitutional constraints on amending bail law, certain practical steps could be taken, for example, imposing a curfew or prohibiting a person from coming or going to a particular place?
The question relates to consecutive sentences and is not about bail. I am happy to tell the Deputy that the Law Reform Commission's report should be ready soon. In the meantime I am preparing the necessary information in order to bring forward a proposal on bail. Nothing has been done about bail, although the matter has often been raised, but I will do something about it very quickly.
