Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 481: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the legislation in place governing begging in public places; his views on the issue; the number of prosecutions under such legislation since 2000; his proposals to update the law in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18405/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The offence of begging arises under Section 3 of the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847. It is subject to a penalty of up to 1 month imprisonment. The High Court delivered its judgement recently in the case of Niall Dillon -v- The DPP. That case concerned the constitutionality of section 3 of the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847. The Court held that the provision is unconstitutional. The Court's written judgement is still awaited. It will be examined when it becomes available, with a view to determining the appropriate response.

The Deputy will be aware that the Law Reform Commission in its Report on Vagrancy and related offences (LRC11-1985) examined provisions relating to the offence of begging. The recommendations of the Commission included proposals for the repeal of the entire Vagrancy Act 1847, Section 2 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1904 and certain parts of Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. The Commission recommended that new legislative provisions should be introduced, making it an offence to beg (i) in a public place, or (ii) from house to house in a manner likely to cause fear or annoyance. The Commission also recommended that the maximum penalty for this offence be a fine of £100 and/or one month imprisonment. The Commission's other recommendations pertained to provisions related to causing or procuring a child to beg (this aspect was addressed in the Children Act 2001) and an offence relating to those collecting for charities under the Street and House to House Collections Act 1962 who obstruct a passerby in a manner likely to cause fear or annoyance. The Commission's recommendations will be among the matters to be considered once the judgement in the Dillon case becomes available.

The Deputy may be aware that following the submission in 2004 of a report and recommendations by an expert group on crime statistics, it was decided that the compilation and publication of crime statistics should be taken over by the Central Statistics Office, as the national statistical agency, from the Garda Síochána. The Garda Síochána Act 2005 consequently makes provision for this and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose. Following the setting up of the necessary technical systems and auditing of the data from which the statistics are compiled, the CSO is now compiling and publishing criminal statistics and has published provisional headline crime statistics for the third and fourth quarters of 2006 and for the first quarter of 2007. In addition, it has compiled and published a series of quarterly and annual statistics for the period starting with the first quarter of 2003. I understand that the CSO are examining how the crime statistics published might be expanded and made more comprehensive.

I have requested the CSO to provide the statistics for the period 2003 to 2006 sought by the Deputy directly to him. The relevant statistics for the remainder of the period mentioned by the Deputy, i.e. 2000 to 2002, are available in the Annual Reports of the Garda Síochána for the years in question.