Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I do not have those figures but perhaps the Deputy could put down a separate question to get them. The Criminal Law Act 1997, which passed in March that year, abolished the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours. The commission reported that the vast majority of complaints regarding alleged offences were misdemeanours rather than felonies. To a certain extent the goalposts have changed because the law has moved on. Any prosecutions that might relate to before 1997 are fraught with the difficulty arising because the misprision of felonies offence has, in effect, been abolished. We must be realistic as time has moved on. Any chance for prosecution flowing from the O'Mahony report will be taken if possible.

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