Ireland must follow the UK’s lead and publish migrant and ethnicity crime data, Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn has said.
In a press release issued today by Independent Ireland, the Cork North Central TD announced that he will bring forward private members’ legislation seeking to compel the government to publish data on the nationality and ethnic status of criminal offenders who are resident in Ireland or seeking leave to remain under the international protection system.
“There was no justifiable reason not to make such data publicly accessible,” said O’Flynn.
“If we want maximum transparency; if we want an evidence-based debate on the status or ethnicity of criminal offenders then we simply must introduce far more robust statistical methodologies than the ones currently in place.”
O’Flynn argued that published crime figures from Nordic countries, including Sweden and Denmark, had already influenced policy changes relating to immigration and asylum.
“I believe the public deserve to know if a similar trend is occurring here,” he continued.
“It seems highly unlikely that our own Government or the Department of Justice will agree to this and that is why I fully intend to bring forward amending legislation in this area.”
O’Flynn explained specifically what his proposed legislation would entail.
“What I would be calling for specifically is for the Minister for Justice to produce and publish an annual report setting out statistics on the nationality and visa or asylum status of every offender convicted in the courts,” he said.
“At present the entire debate is operating in a vacuum of solid information because neither the courts nor the gardai can readily provide the kind of detail that is required.”
O’Flynn also called on the Minister for Justice to clarify why research commissioned by his Department in 2022, titled “Ethnic Monitoring in the Criminal Justice System,” has not been published.
“That Report was conducted in 2022 by Maynooth University and Bracken from the University of Manitoba to, explores how other jurisdictions implement ethnic monitoring in criminal justice systems in order to provide insights to inform policy deliberations in the Irish context,” he said.
“As I understand it the research examined ethnic monitoring practices in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England and Wales, focusing on their design, implementation, and impact.”
He questioned the delay in releasing the findings of the research.
“Why then has it not been published by the Minister?” he asked.
“What are they afraid of?
“People are absolutely entitled to know who is committing crime and where they have come from. That should be a given.”
O’Flynn argued that Ireland must move beyond anecdotal evidence and existing statistical methods.
“We have to move beyond the anecdotal and the ad hoc data that is laboriously extracted from the CSO or the prison service,” he said.
“Give the people the information and let them make up their minds. We also need to provide this data so we can direct the attention of the gardai and the criminal justice system to where it should be focused.”
This development follows recent announcements by the UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who confirmed plans to publish data on the nationality and crimes of foreign criminals by the end of the year. The UK’s Home Office has confirmed there were over 19,000 foreign offenders awaiting deportation at the end of 2024.