Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of themes to cover. I want to deal, first, with the issue of prisons. The committee has submitted to the Minister and his Department its report on penal reform which contains five key recommendations. We had a chance to discuss it briefly yesterday during the debate on the Cork Prison motion. I believe and know the members of the committee believe that not only would our five proposals, if implemented, lead to a better prison and criminal justice system, in that we would have genuine rehabilitation or certainly improved rehabilitation programmes across the board which obviously would be better for society, but they would also cost less. We are calling for a decarceration strategy, a reduction in prison numbers of one third in the next ten years, the use of community service, the use of restorative justice as an option in dealing with minor criminal offences and improvements in regard to remission rates which the Minister mentioned. A prisoner receives a 25% remission rate, essentially for keeping his or her head down. We are arguing that it be genuinely incentivised through being linked with rehabilitation and training programmes and increased to 33%.

I want to get the Minister's thoughts on our report as a contribution to cost saving measures and introducing a more effective system in the next few years.