Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 305: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of offences committed by members of criminal gangs while on bail for previous offences in each of the past three years and to date in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40691/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 306: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes committed by persons on bail in each of the past five years and to date in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40692/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 307: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the action he proposes to take to prevent the committing of a crime by those on bail; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40693/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 305 to 307, inclusive, together.

The law takes a serious view of offences committed by persons on bail. The Criminal Justice Act, 1984 provides for mandatory consecutive sentences to apply where a person is convicted of an offence committed while on bail. In addition, the law provides that the fact that an offence was committed while on bail must be treated as an aggravating factor at sentencing and that the court shall impose a sentence that is greater than that which would have been imposed otherwise, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

There have been concerns at how, in practice, our bail laws have been operating, and these led to the inclusion in the Criminal Justice Act, 2007 of a series of new provisions designed to tighten up on the granting of bail. These allow the prosecution to mount a more effective challenge to bail applications. For example, applicants for bail can be required to provide a statement of their means so that the prosecution can highlight any divergence their between their lifestyles and their stated means as evidence of their involvement in gangland activity. The Director of Public Prosecution is now able to appeal to the High Court against a decision of the District Court to grant bail and against the conditions attached by the District Court to the bail.

I am asking the Government this week to approve my proposal to commence work on a new Bail Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to consolidate and update bail law with a view to presenting a clear, accessible and modern statement of the law. In preparing the Bill I will address a number of weaknesses in the current law to ensure that the bail regime can operate in as tight and effective a way as possible. I will also examine the extent to which the law could be restated to better guide the courts on the need to protect the public against those who present an unacceptable risk of committing a serious offence if granted bail.

The Garda Síochána Act 2005 makes provision for the compilation and publication of crime statistics by the Central Statistics Office, as the national statistical agency, and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose.

I have requested the CSO to provide the statistics sought by the Deputy directly to him.