Mr. Jimmy Martin:

The reference to electronic monitoring refers to the general scheme of a bail Bill which has already been drafted and published. The previous Government introduced a provision for electronic monitoring of people on bail. It was indiscriminate - it could have applied to everybody - and there are several thousand people on bail, so it was not regarded as cost-effective. In the general scheme of the bail Bill there is an amendment to those provisions to allow for the prosecution to make an application for one of the conditions of bail to be that the person is electronically monitored. If there were particular people involved and the Garda felt that one method of preventing them from committing further crimes would be to monitor their whereabouts, they could apply for electronic monitoring in those specific cases.