Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 June 2022
346. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Minister for Justice the number of bench warrants issued in each of the past five years by Irish courts and the number of warrants executed for each of the years concerned in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28563/22]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the Garda Commissioner is, by law, responsible for the administration and business of An Garda Síochána, including the allocation of Garda resources in respect of identified operational demands. As Minister, I have no direct role in these decisions.
As the Deputy will appreciate, difficulties in relation to the execution of warrants, including bench warrants, are a long-standing issue for many police services around the world; notably relating to persons actively seeking to evade detection and where limited identification information might be available to support enforcement. I am assured, however, that An Garda Síochána execute warrants as expeditiously as possible, giving priority to the execution of warrants relating to serious crimes.
The Deputy will also appreciate that the figure for outstanding bench warrants recorded by PULSE at any given time reflects an accumulation of old bench warrants which has arisen over the years and that therefore the total figure for outstanding bench warrants as shown on PULSE may not be a reliable indicator of the number of 'live' warrants which are actually enforceable.
I am advised by the Garda authorities that the table below sets out the number of issued and executed bench warrant as recorded on PULSE for the years 2017 up to 2021 and at 31 May 2022.
|
Category |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
Issued |
27,399 |
41,499 |
38,709 |
15,522 |
20,052 |
11,325 |
|
Executed |
23,697 |
29,480 |
34,625 |
19,566 |
16,004 |
8,838 |
Figures were collated based on data from PULSE as of 1:30am on 31 May 2022. They are operational and may be liable to change.
