Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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581. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons successfully prosecuted under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 in 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [6214/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 provides for the arrest and detention by a member of An Garda Síochána of any person suspected of having committed or being about to commit or being or having being concerned in the commission of an offence under any section of the 1939 Act or an offence which is a scheduled offence for the purposes of Part V of the 1939 Act.

The Deputy will be aware that for the renewal of certain provisions of the Offences Against the State legislation each year, the Minister for Justice is obliged to lay a report of the operation of the sections in question before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Those reports, in addition to providing details on the operation of the provisions falling to be renewed, also give details of the total number of persons arrested under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 for each reporting period.

Subsection (6) of section 30 provides that persons obstructing or impeding a member of an Garda Síochána in exercising any powers conferred under section 30, shall be guilty of an offence. I understand the Deputy to be seeking statistics in relation to prosecutions under this provision. I am however advised by the Courts Service that systems do not currently allow for these statistics to be generated.