Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 Nov 1995

Vol. 457 No. 8

Adjournment Debate. - Criminal Justice System Statistics.

Mr. Flanagan

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment and the Minister of State for being present.

The Programme for Government agreed between the three Government parties approximately one year ago gave a broad commitment to a fundamental reform of the court system from District to Supreme Court level and the modernisation of the criminal justice code to take account of new methods of information gathering, judicial skills, use of video and audio equipment etc. I acknowledge the progress made in these areas during the past year but it is fair to say that any of the unacceptable delays in the civil and criminal courts have been a matter of discussion and deliberation by way of reports and debates inside and outside the House for some time.

The absence of firm statistics, or doubts about the statistics which have been published, is totally unacceptable during these days of modern technology. When this matter was raised previously by Deputies on all sides of the House the Ministers for Justice of the day gave a stock reply to the effect that the cost of providing these basic crime statistics and information on them would be excessive. In the context of the need for a root and branch reform of our criminal justice system this reply is bizarre. In recent years there have been great advances in the House in the area of information technology and it is difficult to understand why a procedure has not been put in place in the criminal justice system, which could allow for the compilation of statistics and analysis of them without the Minister saying that the cost involved would be excessive. If reform of the type needed is to be carried out then we must start from a baseline and I cannot think of any more important baseline than the provision of basic statistical information.

I am sure the Minister and the Minister of State will agree that the type of statistics to which I am referring are essential for the proper administration and development of the criminal justice system. Society has charged us with the responsibility of ensuring that we have an efficient criminal justice system. A strategic information technology plan must be developed and put in place within the criminal justice system to allow for the compilation of these essential statistics and facts. We will not be able to achieve the necessary reform of the criminal justice system without this basic information. It should be possible for elected Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and interested groups such as the Probation and Welfare Service, the Garda Síochána and other bodies involved in the administration of justice to tap in on a daily and ongoing basis to up-to-date and accurate statistics which, unfortunately, are not available at present.

Mr. Currie

I thank Deputy Flanagan for raising this important matter. On a previous occassion in the House the Minister indicated her dissatisfaction with the procedures in place within the criminal justice system for the compilation of statistics. She has always acknowledged that there is a real need for a more sophisticated and informative statistical system in this area as a whole. As the Deputy rightly indicated, the best way of achieving such a system is through the use of information technology. In this regard the Minister is carrying out a major expansion in the use of information technology in the Department of Justice, the Garda, the prisons and the courts.

A Garda Research Unit was established in 1994 to contribute to the objectives of the Garda Síochána by carrying out police related research, by supporting research of others and by making research findings widely available. The unit is manned by three lay researchers and three members of the Garda Síochána and carries out research in a number of areas including crime and criminology, Garda management and development and the changing role of the Garda Síochána in society. This unit has the Minister's full support and it plays a vital role, through the projects it carries out and the statistics which it makes available, in the efficient management and future development of the Garda.

The prison record system which has now been in place for a number of years is also under review to ensure that it will, in the future, be able to compile, collate and make available statistics relevant to the prison system. As soon as the system in place has been fully reviewed it will be expanded and updated as necessary to allow for the provision of meaningful statistics quickly and easily.

With regard to the courts, the Minister announced on Monday the establishment of a working group on a courts commission with terms of reference which specifically asked it to review, among other things, the information technology in place in the courts. The use of information technology has developed at different rates over the years in the various courts and while some progress has been made in the District and High Courts very little progress has been made in implementing an information technology system in the Circuit Court. A committee comprised of County Registrars and officials from the Department is conducting a feasibility study on the computerisation of all aspects of the work of Circuit Court offices.

It is not simply a matter of producing more and more statistics. Of critical importance is the quality of the statistics produced and the requirement that everybody using the available statistics should be clear as to what is involved. Let me mention two examples — one in the area of the courts and the other in the prisons.

Court statistics, by and large, are kept primarily for the purpose of measuring the volume of business in the court, the extent of the arrears, etc. These are the figures given by Justice Ministers in reply to questions and so on, but they may not give the actual figure the researcher is looking for. In the case of judicial separations, to take an example of one statistic, if one looks at the total figures given by Circuit Court offices over the years since the 1989 Act came into force one comes up with a figure of about 11,000. The Minister has given these court statistics many times which are a measure of the actual volume of business before the courts year by year, but if one wants to isolate the number of new cases year by year, to the exclusion of cases already going through various stages of the courts process, the figure is in the 6,000-7,000 range.

In the case of prisons, there tends to be ongoing misunderstanding of various statistics. About 10,500 people are committed to prison each year, but the daily average prison population is at or about 2,000. The number of people committed to prison for failure to pay their debts or pay fines is about 2,000 per year whereas the number in custody at any one time is about 20. My point is that the quality of the statistics produced is crucial, as is the need for everybody who has occasion to use statistics to know what exactly is represented by the various figures produced.

It will take time and expertise to reach the stage where we have an adequate set of criminal justice statistics, but it will be time and expertise well spent. The Minister is determined to secure progress in this matter in any way she can.