Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 September 2021
576. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Justice the number of drug searches that have taken place in County Tipperary since 1 September 2020; and the number of arrests and convictions for possession and supply of illegal drugs in County Tipperary since September 2020. [46285/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the Garda Commissioner is by law responsible for the management of An Garda Síochána. As Minister, I have no responsibility for these matters.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that the continued disruption of the supply of all illicit drugs remains a priority for An Garda Síochána and the other state agencies tasked with responsibilities in this regard. An Garda Síochána have also stated that drugs searches are enforcement activity and as such do not generally provide this information. Drugs can also be found in unrelated searches. For this reason the Garda authorities have provided information on incidents and arrests only.
The below table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, sets out the number of incidents and arrests recorded by An Garda Síochána for ‘Possession of Drugs for Sale or Supply’ in County Tipperary between 01/09/2020 to 23 September 2021.
|
Tipperary Garda Division |
01 Sept 2020 - 23 Sept 2021 |
|
Incidents of Possession of Drugs for Sale or Supply |
151 |
|
Arrests for Possession of Drugs for Sale or Supply |
152 |
It is important to note that these figures are operational and subject to change.
In relation to the information requested by the Deputy on the number of persons convicted of relevant offences in Tipperary, the following table, furnished to me by the Courts Service, outlines the number of convictions in the District Courts in Tipperary.
|
01 Sept – 31 Dec 2020 |
01 Jan – 31 Aug 2021 |
|||
|
Court Area |
Number of Offences where convictions were recorded |
Number of Persons convicted |
Number of Offences where convictions were recorded |
Number of Persons convicted |
|
Cashel |
4 |
4 |
26 |
25 |
|
Clonmel |
15 |
13 |
58 |
51 |
|
Carrick on Suir |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
|
Nenagh |
27 |
17 |
31 |
21 |
|
Thurles |
8 |
7 |
29 |
27 |
|
Tipperary |
3 |
2 |
9 |
6 |
|
Total |
61 |
47 |
158 |
135 |
The Courts Service can only provide data in relation to where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.
At this time, the system in use by the Courts Service in the Circuit Courts is the Integrated Criminal Management System (ICMS). ICMS cannot produce reports for specific offences.
