Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

This a most serious problem and it is getting worse. The Minister did not refer to the August initiative, which I understand was specifically designed to deal with the backlog of warrants. He stated that 36,970 bench warrants are currently outstanding. Given that the figure for May was 33,000, the August initiative was a complete failure.

Does he accept that a number of serious criminals continue to engage in their activities even while bench warrants have been issued for them? Where is the system failing and why is the matter not being addressed adequately?

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