Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1307. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons arrested for rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years in tabular form. [2191/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that this Government is deeply committed to tackling sexual violence and sexual crime in all its forms.

Working to ensure that victims feel empowered to report sexual crimes and that when they do, they are fully supported at every stage of their interaction with our justice system, has been a priority for me as Minister for Justice.

Building the confidence of victims is a cornerstone of the actions set out in Supporting a Victim’s Journey . The implementation of this important action plan is continuing and I am glad to inform the Deputy that a number of key actions have already been delivered including:

- Legislating for the introduction of preliminary trial hearings which will reduce delay and disruption that might re-traumatise victims;

- The completion of the nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSUs);

- The first cohort of staff at a new sexual offences unit in the Director of Public Prosecutions office formally took up their roles in April;

- Work to advance the training for all personnel who come into contact with vulnerable victims is underway;

- The University of Limerick has been commissioned by the Department to develop the framework for the operation and training of intermediaries.

- A review of the supports and funding of civil society organisations providing frontline services to victims of sexual offences was conducted to identify where gaps may exist and how to bridge them and additional funding has been provided to a number of organisations to do so. 

In relation to the specific information sought by the Deputy on the number of persons arrested for rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years, I have sought this information from An Garda Síochána and it is presented in the table below.

A search of the PULSE database was conducted on 13 January 2022 for prisoner logs associated with incidents of the type ‘Rape of a Female’, ‘Rape Section 4’ or ‘Sexual Assault’ where the arrest or entry date is within the period 01/01/2011 to 31/12/21.

*Less than 10

Additional Information

Incident data is based upon operational data from the PULSE system as was available at 01:00 on 13/01/2022 and is liable to change. This is a count of prisoner logs created rather than unique persons arrested. A person may have been arrested more than once within a given year.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1308. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons convicted of rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years in tabular form. [2192/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the provision of information on the courts system.

To be of assistance, I have made enquiries with the Courts Service on the number of persons convicted of rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years.

The Courts Service have advised that the majority of rape offences are prosecuted in the Central Criminal Court. They have further advised that while a small minority of cases are dealt with in the Circuit court, to provide a break down by county would not be reflective of the offences taking place in each area and risks providing an incorrect picture.

The Courts Service further directed that all of the information it is able to provide for this category will be contained in the Annual Reports, which can be found here:  

www.courts.ie/annual-report.