John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 433: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the way he determines whether legislation is effective if his Department does not collect the requisite statistics on convictions set out in new legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28074/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Criminal legislation is kept under review in my Department with a view to ascertaining whether it is operating in an efficient and effective manner. A variety of factors is taken into account in assessing the effectiveness of any piece of criminal legislation. These can include, but are not limited to, statistical information on the incidence of prosecutions or convictions. In addition to statistical information they can include the experience of An Garda Síochána and other agencies in the operation of current legislation and the interpretation of the law by the courts.

Statistics on different aspects of the criminal justice system are available to my Department from a number of agencies, including the Central Statistics Office, An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service and the Irish Prison Service. Production of statistics requested may from time to time require research by the requested agency.