David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a question on resources. Ms Malone and others spoke about the cost of keeping people in prison and a figure of €69,000 per annum was mentioned. It must be noted that unless we close down a prison, we do not make massive savings. One must also take into account the costs associated with court cases, with gardaí being tied up waiting for cases to be called, the work of the probation services and so forth, as well as those relating to the Prison Service. In a decriminalisation scenario, we could move those resources into treatment, as has been suggested by many of today's witnesses but is there any way of quantifying that? Could we say that if we move to this new model, a great deal of resources will be freed up which can be used for treatment, rehabilitation and prevention?