34 homicides• and 113,000 offences were committed by people on bail
THERE was an increase of 76% in offences committed by people on bail from 2013 to 2017, new Dáil figures show.
Over the five-year period, more than 113,000 offences were committed by criminals who had already been charged for another crime.
Questions from Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan and Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan revealed that the crimes committed by persons on bail include 34 homicides, 128 sexual offences and 40 kidnappings.
Other violations of the law include thousands of robberies, extortion, drugs, weapons and explosives offences and threats to murder. The amount of offences have risen from 16,323 in 2013 to 28,748 in 2017 – a jump of just over 76%.
Figures are not yet available for 2018, but the numbers have increased year on year since 2013.
Reacting to the disclosure, Mr Durkan warned that he and other TDs will ‘be knocking on Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan’s door if there is not a drastic improvement in the current figures on crime committed by individuals on bail’.
‘I have been banging this drum for a long time now – things must change,’ he said.
‘Increasingly, hardened criminals are treating court appearances as a mild interruption in their chosen profession of a life in crime. Huge amounts of Garda efforts and taxpayer resources are being spent on arrests that have no effect at all.’
The gardaí, Mr Durkan said, ‘bring them into court and the judges let them straight back out again; it is seriously damaging morale in the force’.
‘Offending on bail is a fulltime occupation for some people. We are in the utterly appalling situation where hundreds and thousands of the vilest of crimes are being committed by people who should not be on the streets.’
Mr Durkan said offences committed while on bail were hurting all sections of society, ‘urban and rural, it is a blight on the countryside’.
Jim O’Callaghan, Fianna Fail’s Justice spokesman, warned: ‘Our legal system is being undermined and will continue to be undermined if we do not deal with this problem.
‘The people voted overwhelmingly in 1996 to change the Constitution so that bail could be refused if there was a likelihood of another offence being committed on bail.’
He slammed the Government for failing to support Fianna Fáil proposals to ‘strengthen our bail laws’, adding: ‘They need to recognise that resources are required to support the use of electronic monitoring.’ The statistics reveal that between 2013 and 2017 a total of 34 murders were committed by individuals on bail. Other crimes included 128 sexual offences; 40 kidnapping offences; 3,576 threats to murder and assaults; 1,775 dangerous/negligent acts; 1,728 acts of robbery, hijacking and extortion; 7,120 burglaries; 27,802 thefts; 1,164 acts of fraud; 8,890 drugs offences; 2,137 weapons and explosives offences; 4,127 acts of damage to property; 20,550 public order offences; 37,821 offences against government, justice procedures and the organisation of crime. The figures also reveal that offences are up in 13 of the 14 recorded categories.
Commenting on the figures, a defensive Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan noted: ‘The deputy knows a decision to grant bail in a particular case is a matter for the presiding judge, who is, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of his or her judicial functions.
‘There is also a Constitutional presumption in favour of the grant 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.’
However, the figures have sparked unease within Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil with one senior minister warning: ‘These figures put our status as the party of law and order under serious threat.’
Criminals, they said, ‘are using the halls of justice as a revolving door, they are laughing going in, laughing going out and the judges don’t seem to be too good at identifying the ones we should keep inside.
‘It is killing us in rural Ireland, the people see thousands of thieves being released on bail every week to return and harass them on their farms.’
In a further embarrassment Mr Flanagan has also revealed that the Government does not actually know the full extent of crimes committed by criminals on bail. ‘These statistics were categorised as “Under Reservation” which means the quality of these statistics does not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO.’
‘Our legal system is being undermined’ ‘It is killing us in rural Ireland’