1570. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons convicted for possessions of cannabis; and the number of these who have been diverted through the Adult Caution Programme in 2021 and to date in 2022, respectively. [40692/22]

Minister for Justice: As the Deputy will be aware, the Adult Caution Scheme is a non-statutory scheme agreed between, and administered by, An Garda Síochána and the Director of Public Prosecutions. Both the Garda Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions are independent in their functions and I, as Minister, have no role in relation to these matters.

Possession of cannabis or cannabis resin for personal use was introduced to the Schedule of Offences of the Adult Cautioning Scheme on 14 December 2020. The table below, provided to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the annual count of adult cautions issued according to the date on which the associated offence was reported.

* 01 January to 19 July 2022

Regarding the number of persons convicted for the possession of cannabis, the Deputy will be aware that the management of the courts, operational matters and logistical functions are the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in exercising their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and given the separation of powers in the Constitution.

The Courts Service has a dedicated email address for the provision of information to members of the Houses of the Oireachtas at: oireachtasenquiries@courts.ie.

To be of assistance, I have also referred the Deputy's query to the Court Service.