Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

We will discuss with the Parliamentary Counsel whether this proposed amendment is necessary and I will table an amendment in Dáil if it is considered that this matter needs to be dealt with.

I wish to make a further point concerning amendment No. 5 which proposes to increase the term of imprisonment from six to 12 months. I wanted to use the example of this amendment earlier today at a committee meeting at which we were discussing overcrowding in prisons but I could not locate it among my papers. Deputies Rabbitte and Flanagan had raised the issue and I made the point that time and again the Oireachtas keeps increasing sentences, but that has an effect, namely, that people will be in prison for longer. We are sending a signal in all legislation to this effect.

This list of amendments was in my bundle of papers, but I did not come across it until now. It would have reinforced the point I was making to Deputy Rabbitte. Even as of today the Labour Party has asked that we increase the sentence possible from six months to 12 months. I do not disagree with this and I have accepted the amendment. I was making a point on prison overcrowding. None of us wants to have people in prison if we can help it, but the reality is that if the Oireachtas keeps raising the bar in regard to sentencing, we are sending a signal to the Judiciary and it will give close to the maximum sentences, which means people we be in prison for longer. That will mean that we will have to build more prison places.