Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I have had an opportunity to reflect on the Deputy's contribution on Committee Stage. I have considerable sympathy for his view that in some cases warrants appear to run into the sand. I will ask the Courts Service to examine whether the rules of the District Court, which, in respect of some warrants, provide for a six month lifespan, should be reconsidered and whether there is a case to be made for a return on a warrant to be made when the time limit is expired. I will examine the issue and I am deeply grateful to the Deputy for raising it.

It is unsatisfactory, even from the point of view of public confidence in the system, that a parliamentary question may elicit information that thousands of warrants are not executed. That does not sound right.

Garda time is limited and gardaí must be selective about what they do. While a system should be in place whereby they follow up and report back on warrants, I do not wish to create a new bureaucratic monster that will result in gardaí not being on the street because they are filling out history papers about their efforts to execute a warrant, which may not be the most productive use of their time.

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