Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The words "electronic monitoring" sound very negative, but we have to consider how such a provision is imposed. People are arrested and charged with serious offences. They then look to be released on bail. The likelihood is that they will not be granted bail and that they will be remanded in custody until such time as their trial is held. That is an option to be avoided, but they have to consent to use of the provision. The advantage of electronic monitoring is that they will not be remanded in custody and will be released, but conditions will be imposed, one of which will be that they will be monitored in order that their movements will be taken into account. It is important in the first instance that people will have to consent to this.

I note what Deputy Clare Daly is seeking to do in amendment No. 6, but I would have thought courts took all of those factors into account. It is proposed that the type and modalities of tagging be proportionate to the offences alleged in terms of their duration and intrusiveness, but electronic monitoring will only be used in the case of serious offences. I would have thought every court took into account the age of an individual. The important point is that this provision will only apply and continue until the trial takes place. We should get criminal trials up and running within one year, but if the option was to remand someone in custody or to use electronic monitoring, it would be a way of ensuring people were not incarcerated at a time when they had not yet been convicted. Therefore, I cannot support the amendment.

On amendment No. 7, I recognise Deputy Clare Daly's concern. In other countries, particularly in America, the incarceration process has become a business and it is creeping into Britain. The last thing we want is to have an expert private company responsible for monitoring and extending its control into prisons. Currently, monitoring is carried out by private enterprises. If we were to let the State run the system, how effective would it be? It requires a degree of technical sophistication, I would be concerned, if amendment No. 7 was to be accepted, that it would have the effect of preventing the current system of monitoring from operating.