Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of persons arrested and/or prosecuted for begging-related offences in 2010 and to date in 2011; and the number moved on by gardaí for begging-related offences using the new powers in the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. [6065/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 2011 was enacted on 2 February. The legislation was necessary as the High Court had found that the old law, dating from 1847, was unconstitutional. I am informed by the Garda authorities that since the enactment of the Act there have been 177 arrests under its provisions. The offence of causing or procuring a child to beg is contained in section 247 of the Children Act 2001. I am informed by the Garda authorities that there were 86 arrests in 2010 and seven arrests in 2011 in relation to offences under this provision. These figures are operational and liable to change and are valid to 27 March.

It is not possible to indicate the number of persons who have complied with a direction pursuant to section 3 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, which gives the power to a member of An Garda Síochána to give directions, as there is no offence committed by a person who complies with a lawful direction to move on. 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 An 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, publishing and responding to queries regarding recorded crime statistics. I have requested the CSO to provide statistics on the number of prosecutions directly to the Deputy.