Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will go back to the Minister's original response where he repeated figures included in the initial reply to the parliamentary question in respect of the most common offence types carried out by offenders who were on bail. He mentioned public order, drunkenness, theft from shops, possession of drugs for personal use and criminal damage, which accounted for 59%. Will the Minister outline to the Dáil the detail of the categories that make up the other 41% of crimes for which no figures were given in that reply?

The number of crimes committed while suspects were on bail went up from 26,000 in 2016 to 40,000 in 2024. My difficulty with the Minister's answer regarding the progress that has been made through the courts in recent times is that it suggests that he is not committing to reviewing the operation of the bail laws, including changes to them that might be necessary.

Does the Minister agree that a real problem results from the fact that we simply do not have enough gardaí in our communities to be able to monitor all these things, particularly to monitor those who have been released on bail?

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