Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that warrants issued by the courts come to something, an issue we debated on Committee Stage. It is a cause of concern that a warrant could be in existence in perpetuity without being acted upon. The amendment proposes introducing a requirement that the Court that issued a warrant be updated on the position and the warrant either discharged or an explanation given to the court for the failure to execute it, for example, in the case of a person being outside the jurisdiction.

I am conscious that we are discussing No. 9 of 417 amendments and time is limited. The Minister engaged usefully in the Committee Stage debate on this issue. Has he had time to reflect on my proposal? Does he envisage the introduction either in this or other legislation of a provision to deal with warrants that have not been executed?

As I indicated previously, I have been alerted recently to cases in which individuals who committed serious offences were arrested without gardaí noting that extant warrants had been issued for the arrest of the arrested persons. While I presume these matters are checked as a matter of routine, given the technological age in which we live, it is necessary to improve systems, as we discovered recently in other areas of the criminal justice system. Has the Minister reflected further on this matter in the short period since Committee Stage?

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