It is interesting to note that the Vagrancy Act, which this legislation proposes to replace, was introduced in 1847, a number of years after the Famine began. The statistics as presented in the Bills digest for this legislation make for interesting reading. Those available are from 2003 to 2007. The year 2007 itself can be disregarded in that the Dillon judgment came into effect during that year. There is a consistency in the rate of conviction of approximately 35%, however, the number of proceedings varies, from a high of 729 in 2003 to a low of 395 in 2006, with 416 in 2004 and 663 in 2005. That seems to indicate an issue that is not receiving a co-ordinated and systemic approach. I do not think that is purely because of the lack of legislation. The digest does not contain any specific statistics on the proceedings and convictions carried out as a result of section 247 of the Children Act 2001. That, in itself, is a figure that would be of interest.

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