WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION ACT 2012

WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION ACT 2012

I asked a colleague of mine to make a Freedom of Information request to establish how many offences of - "Withholding of information on offences against children or vulnerable persons Act 2012" have been recorded and how many are cleared (marked as detected or convicted) since the law started back in 2012.

The request was put into the DPP's office in Dublin, to which the below reply was forwarded with no surprise, that no offices or organisations in Ireland keep or record such facts.

"I refer to the request that you have made under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, received in this Office on the 16 August 2016. In your request you seek a copy of records relating to the number of people charged and/or convicted under the Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons Act 2012 since it was introduced.

The information sought on these statistics has been refused under Section 15. (1) (a) as the records do not exist in this Office. Our case management system does not record statistics in the categories and detail requested or any similar format."

My colleague also went on to establish that:

The DPP's office do not record this category.
The Garda do not record it.
The Statistician, Crime and Criminal Justice office have no records for this offence type.

ENDS

While I am not surprised that this new act is not being followed up on.

I would have liked to have believed that some organisation would have kept an eye on this with the view to publishing a report to allow us to know if this new act is prosecuting mothers and siblings or other relatives who KNOW about abuse and do not report it to protect a child.

So that we can then see that the act is working as a deterrent and is protecting children. Sadly the Irish Authorities do not think this act is worth studying, or reporting on, what a shame that the Irish Authorities do not feel its important to keep an eye on this one.