Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

He claims it is inevitable that in any criminal justice system there will be a significant number of warrants outstanding. I could accept that for two to five weeks but not for 111,000 outstanding warrants. How long have these been outstanding? How many are outstanding for three months, more than six months and more than a year? How many relate to bail?

It is fantastic for the Minister of State to claim with a straight face that because Garda numbers have risen to 14,000 it makes sense there would be more warrants outstanding. I would have thought the opposite argument could be made, that because we have 14,000 Garda, more warrants are being executed.

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