Ms Caitriona Mason:

Penalties are the subject of ongoing engagement with the Office of the Attorney General at this point. There is an escalation scheme in the heads of the Bill. The warning is an element of the offence itself. A person must have been warned to have committed an offence. Then there is the discretionary power. In line with a graduated approach to policing, there is a discretionary power for gardaí to issue a direction, then it goes into people being arrested, and there are penalties for first offence, second offence and third offence. These are set out in the heads of the Bill. I reiterate that this is the subject of ongoing engagement with the Office of the Attorney General.