James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Joyce. A statistic jumped out from Mr. Mullins's opening remarks, namely, that people from areas of social deprivation were 25 times more likely to end up in prison. That is a stark statistic. I am guessing that they are more likely to follow that path because, due to the environment they are in or others before them having gone down that path, it is an easier path to follow. To a lesser extent, it may be the case that people from more affluent backgrounds are better able to - I will not say defend, because everyone should hopefully be entitled to the same defence - present stronger mitigating factors and so on. How do we break the cycle? Being 25 times more likely is not a good number.