Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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480. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who reoffended while released on bail for other alleged crimes during each of the past five years; the breakdown of the types of crime allegedly committed while on bail; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44525/21]

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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481. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps being taken to restrict the granting of bail to serial or repeat offenders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44526/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 480 and 481 together.

As the Deputy will recall from my response to Dáil question 1,364 of 27 July 2021, the decision to grant bail in a particular case is a matter for the presiding Judge, who is independent in the exercise of his or her judicial functions. There is also a constitutional presumption in favour of the granting of bail as, under Irish Law, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The Criminal Justice Act 2017 strengthens the operation of the bail system with the aim of making the law as effective as possible in protecting the public against crimes committed by persons on bail.

Under the Act, the Court is required to have regard to persistent serious offending by an applicant for bail and the nature and seriousness of any danger presented by the granting of bail to a person charged with an offence that carries a penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment or more. The Court also has the power, in certain cases, to hear evidence from the victim of an offence before a decision on bail is taken. Where an accused person is granted bail, the Act provides for stricter bail terms for repeat serious offenders, including the use of curfews and strengthens Garda powers to deal with breaches of bail.

The information requested by the Deputy has been sought from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The tables attached provided by the CSO details the number of crime incidents recorded on PULSE where at least one suspected offender is recorded as having been on bail at the time of the offence. The tables do not provide any information on the number of crime recorded incidents which subsequently led to a prosecution or which following prosecution resulted in conviction.

It is important to note that the CSO classifies these figures as under reservation. This categorisation indicates that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by CSO. More information in this regard can be found on the website of the CSO at www.cso.ie/en/methods/crime/statisticsunderreservationfaqs/.

The way in which suspected offenders were recorded by An Garda Síochána changed in early 2018. This is the reason that years 2018 to 2020 are presented in separate tables.

As such, the 'before' and 'after' are not directly comparable and these figures may increase over time as more investigations reach conclusion.