Dr. Mary Rogan:

I will conclude with some reflections on the penal policy making process as a whole. Based on our history and the experience of other countries, when the criminal justice policy-making discussion relates to what legislation can do and is focused on what can be achieved through legislative means, we tend to see prison populations rising. We saw that happening here in the mid 1990s and the mid 2000s. It is for the Oireachtas to decide if those approaches have been successful to date. If they had been successful, would we be in this position?

We must change our approach to policy-making. We must have proper, robust, evidence based discussions on the current position, what is likely to work, what works elsewhere and on the international experience in this area. It is noteworthy that this committee's report advocated an approach to policy-making that is more informed. Also noteworthy is the penal policy review group's recommendation that we put a consultative council in place to determine where changes are needed, assess the information we have on what is going on, look at what is going on elsewhere and make proposals for reform. It would have been very valuable to put this Bill before a group such as that. This process has been very valuable and if we see more of that kind of approach to policy-making, we might get closer to being able to provide real and effective answers to the problems that we all want to address.