Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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331. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to discuss in Dáil Éireann the Garda inspectorate report into serious crime, dated November 2014; if she and the Garda Commissioner are both committed to implementing every one of the 200 recommendations therein; if she will provide a time frame and an update on the progress that has been made on implementing each of those recommendations in tabular form, with a particular focus on the categorisation and compiling of crime statistics; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10309/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Garda Inspectorate Report on Crime Investigation forms an important component in the overall justice reform programme which is currently underway and in respect of which significant progress has already been made. Implementation of this programme, including the reforms recommended by the Inspectorate, is being overseen by the Cabinet Committee on Justice Reform, chaired by An Taoiseach.I expect that there will continue to be ample opportunity to discuss all aspects of this programme in this House.

An Garda Síochána has already taken important steps to follow through on the Inspectorate’s recommendations with the establishment of an Implementation Steering Group to immediately focus on the implementation of the short, medium and long-term recommendations in the Report. I can also advise the Deputy that the new Garda Policing Plan for 2015 has been prepared with the benefit of the Inspectorate's analysis and insights.

I am in ongoing contact with the Commissioner in relation to the wide range of issues arising from the Inspectorate report and expect to receive regular updates on progress, and that this information will be disseminated at appropriate intervals.There will also of course be a central role for the new Police Authority in overseeing the implementation of the reforms identified by the Inspectorate.

Insofar as the Deputy's specific query concerning progress in relation to the compilation of crime statistics is concerned, as the Deputy will appreciate, this is a matter in the first instance for the Central Statistics Office, as the national statistical agency. The CSO is currently carrying out a detailed analysis of certain issues raised by the Inspectorate in relation to the recording, classification and reclassification of crime, to see whether and to what extent they may have implications for the crime statistics which that Office produces.I understand that substantial work has been carried out on this project since the report's publication, and that this work is ongoing.

In addition, the CSO has also agreed to chair an expert panel to examine the Inspectorate's recommendations on crime statistics.The expert panel will review the crime counting and detection rules, as recommended by the Inspectorate, with a view to introducing new national standards. I am advised that the expert panel will commence its work in the coming weeks.