Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

We are trying to reduce the number of people committed to prison. For example, under the Fines Act, there has been a huge decrease in the number of committals to prison. This was part of the revolving door aspect to which the Deputy referred, as many of the people in question would have been in and out of prison on the same day. We have tried to get rid of this to the greatest extent possible. There has been a huge fall in the number committed for the non-payment of fines. What we are trying to do at a policy level is develop alternatives to prison. This also has a bearing on the Deputy's earlier question about the number of prison spaces needed. If we can develop the use of community service orders or attachment of fines or recovery orders, for instance, which do not involve the use of custodial arrangements, it will be a win-win all round because the Exchequer would not have to pay €68,000 to house somebody in a prison and somebody would not be put in a prison who was not suitable for it, given the nature of his or her transgression which should not lead them into a prison.

There has been a debate recently on the neighbouring island - when they are not debating other things - about short sentences - sentences of less than six months or one year - whether people in that category should really be in prison - by definition, the transgressions must be relatively minor if the sentence is of that length - and whether it might be better if they did community service. That is the direction of policy.