Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. I was in the Seanad. I am sorry I missed the contributions thus far, but I had an opportunity to have a look at the submissions. I welcome all the speakers. I commend all the work being done and the efforts being made to concentrate on opportunities for rehabilitation, because they are important. I have two main points.

I see that the Government is now proposing, in the cases of life sentences, to allow judges to propose minimum terms. I express my doubts as to the correctness of that proposal. I say that because the individual circumstances of a person being sentenced to life imprisonment cannot be properly examined when he or she is at the receiving end of a mandatory sentence in an environment of high emotion, such as when other people are in court giving witness impact statements and the like. I do not think that is the right time to evaluate such individual circumstances. While it may be fashionable to suggest it, I am against it.

I would also like Mr. Mullins and Ms McCaffrey to briefly address the question of the infrastructure of our prison system. Is it conducive to rehabilitation? Are we in a position to separate people who are trying to get clean from drugs use or to disassociate from people who drag them back into crime?

Do we need to invest more in prisons? If I might raise this terrible canard, is Thornton Hall more badly needed than ever?