Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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221. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of drug searches that have taken place in County Cavan since the beginning of 2019; and the number of arrests and convictions for the possession and supply of illegal drugs in County Cavan since January 2019, in tabular form. [9941/20]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Garda Commissioner is by law responsible for the management of An Garda Síochána, including personnel matters, deployment of resources and operational action. As Minister, I have no responsibility for these matters.

I am assured however that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources under continual review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities, to ensure their optimum use.

The following table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, sets out the number of incidents recorded by An Garda Síochána or ‘Possession of Drugs for Sale or Supply’and ‘Simple Possession’(personal use) in the County of Cavan between 01/01/2019 and 31/05/2020.

It is important to note that these figures are operational and subject to change .

In relation to the information requested by the Deputy on the number of persons convicted of relevant offences in Cavan, the following table, furnished to me by the Courts Service, outlines the number of convictions in the District Courts and the Circuit Court in Cavan for the period January 2019 to 31 May 2020.

The Courts Service notes that a person may be convicted or sent forward for trial in relation to both offences and in such a case, they would appear on the report twice.

It should be noted that offences addressed in the Circuit Court in this period may have been sent forward for trial from the District Court prior to the period in question.

Finally, the Deputy may be interested to know that overall and benefiting from record financial provision of €1.88 billion this year, the Garda workforce is now at its highest ever, consisting of over 14,700 Gardaí nationwide, supported by over 3,000 Garda staff.

The continued disruption of the supply of all illicit drugs remains a priority for An Garda Síochána and the other state agencies tasked with responsibilities in this regard. An Garda Síochána continue to work to protect and support communities by preventing and detecting crime, while taking extensive action in support of public health restrictions in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.