Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I disagree. We do not expect to agree on everything.

We agreed that if someone seriously breaches his or her parole conditions, that is a very serious matter and should be dealt with accordingly. However, life is not black and white. We all break rules on a regular basis and we are not always necessarily penalised draconianly for it. I certainly do anyway.

Deputy O'Callaghan states it is a pleasure to be out on parole. There is an element of that, but if one is in prison for a long time, he or she would not be used to being out. On the idea that one might breach some of the rules because one is out, like a calf in the shed after the winter being let out into a green field of grass who behaves in a funny fashion for a while until he or she gets used to it, the prisoner, when he is released after being inside for a long time, is in a strange place. We should be somewhat flexible in how he deals with his new-found freedom and we should not be so black and white and inflexible about it. That is all.