Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry for interrupting Ms McPhillips, but the model is working in Tipperary and in other countries. It is frustrating. People are being sent to prison and while I am not advocating locking people up and throwing away the key, the system does not allow for reparation for victims. I recall one case where an individual had robbed four or five different households and they got a number of weeks in prison and then they came out.

I remember totting up the amount of money stolen as this detail came out in the court case. Surely it would have been better for the person to repay the money and make reparations to the victims. If the people who had been burgled or assaulted received some compensation from the perpetrator or if there had to have been a restorative justice element of some kind, that would have been better. This has been proven internationally and everyone in the Garda up to the Garda Commissioner knows it. While I do not want to misrepresent him, my understanding is the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, wants it. Senior gardaí at all levels believe this is the way to go. Why are we not doing it?