Vol. 513 No. 1
649 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of cases of child physical and sexual abuse reported to An Garda Síochána in each of the years from 1994 to 1999; the number of prosecutions brought arising out of complaints made in each of these years; the number of prosecutions to be determined by the courts; and the number of cases to date in respect of which convictions have been secured. [1050/00]
I am informed by the Garda authorities that although the term "child physical and sexual abuse" is widely used, it does not correspond to a distinct type of offence. Cases of child abuse are recorded under a number of headings, according to the nature of the offence. In order to extract statistics for the number of such crimes that relate to children, it would be necessary to examine each recorded offence, in order to classify it according to the age of the victim. The Deputy will understand that the information as requested is not readily available, and could only be obtained by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of staff time and resources.
