Parliamentary Questions

124. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 112 of 27 May 2015 regarding the offence of holding a mobile telephone while driving; if she has this information to hand; if it will be made available to this Deputy prior to the summer recess; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27875/15]

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Frances Fitzgerald): Further to the Parliamentary Question No. 112 of 27 May 2015 updated figures are now available. For the period 1 January 2013 - 11 June 2015, 74,485 fixed charge notices were issued for the offence of holding a mobile phone. The following table sets out the outcomes of those fixed charge notices. It should be noted that figures provided are provisional, operational and subject to change.

Paid/Not Paid	No.
Paid	56,594
Not Paid	17,891
Total	74,485

Information has also been received from the Courts Service in relation to the number of offences before the courts for holding a mobile phone. For the period 1 January 2013 - 31 March 2015, 15,824 offences came before the courts and convictions were recorded in relation to 4,716. It should be noted that for timing reasons, these figures are not directly comparable with the figures for Fixed Charge Notices above.