Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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350. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of drivers summoned to court to date for the offence of accessing data on a mobile telephone while driving or texting while driving; and the number of drivers convicted of this offence since the offence was established in law. [48062/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service and I have no role in the matter. Section 4(3) of the 1998 Act provides that the Courts Service is independent in the performance of its functions, which includes the provision of information on the courts system.

The Road Traffic Act 2006 (Restriction on use of Mobile Phones) Regulations 2014, which is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, created the new offence to which the deputy refers. The Courts Service has indicated that, a new offence code was updated to the relevant IT systems on 7 December 2014 and, consistent with normal recording procedure, it will be a number of months before any meaningful data can be provided on the numbers of drivers summoned to court and convicted of this offence.