Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree that the media have the potential to be an incredibly positive influence in a society. It would be great if we had independent, positive media. Regarding community service, I understand that in Europe much of it is done through the local authorities. People are given so many hours to do within the local authority and it is managed through the local authority system. The witness says the numbers are dropping here. I do not know if that system is used in Ireland. I am not sure how it is done which is why I asked what the structure is. For example, we are reducing the number of people involved in direct labour for the local authorities and there has been a huge move towards privatisation for a number of years. I do not know if the local authorities here were ever used for that purpose but the Europeans use such a system. There is potential for community service orders to be used in that area through that system. Let us say a judge orders a person to do 200 hours community service. How does the person do it? Who monitors it? What structure is in place for it?