More than 6,500 people got bail in 10-month period

More than 6,500 people were granted bail in the first 10 months of last year, including 33 people facing murder charges and 824…

More than 6,500 people were granted bail in the first 10 months of last year, including 33 people facing murder charges and 824 people before the court for drugs offences.

Figures released by the Department of Justice to Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan showed that 6,586 people were granted bail between January 1st and November 15th last year.

According to the information supplied, there were 33 people granted bail in relation to murder, attempted murder and murder threats.

In addition, 595 people on assault charges were granted bail, while a further 97 on rape and sexual assault charges were also released pending their full criminal trials.

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Thirty-nine people charged with arson were released, and 824 individuals on drugs charges were given bail.

The single largest bail category related to theft charges where 3,440 were allowed out on bail.

In relation to robbery, a more serious charge involving violence or the threat of violence, 275 people were released on bail.

A total of 248 people on fraud charges and a further 200 charged with a variety of other unspecified offences were also released on bail.

In a letter last week providing the figures, Mr McDowell again reiterated his concern "that, too often, the perpetrators of the most serious offences have been granted bail".

Mr McDowell has suggested that a number of suspects in serious gangland activity have committed offences while out on bail.

However, reacting to the figures Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the figures "exposed the glaring failure of Government to discharge its basic duty of protecting the public".

Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said that in the region of 6,500 offences were committed last year by people out on bail.

He claimed the package of measures announced by Mr McDowell yesterday would have "no serious impact on the growing number of crimes committed by suspects out on bail".