Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I respect what Deputy Clare Daly stated about stalking and harassment which are criminal offences but the process of a criminal trial and conviction takes time. If a person is stalking and harassing a person, Deputy Clare Daly's amendment requires that person to have committed a criminal offence. That requires an adjudication by a court. One cannot merely have the parole board stating that the person committed a criminal offence by doing that.

I agree that it is not black and white. I would not like it to be operated in a black and white fashion. I am sure the parole board would not operate it as such. If somebody gets out of prison and gets into a bit of trouble in the first while, that is not an issue on which the parole board will state that his or her parole is revoked or suspended. It requires discretion on the part of the parole board and that is the way it will operate. It is a serious sanction. It would only happen, I would have thought, in exceptional circumstances. However, it is too prolonged a process to state that it would only happen where somebody has committed a criminal offence.