Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The amendment seeks to increase the maximum prison sentence from two years to ten. The package of penalties provided for in the Bill has resulted from consideration of the range of offences covered in section 77 and has met with a broad welcome from most of the interest groups. Since Committee Stage I have examined the provisions in other legislation and in general the principle is that where an offence is committed arising from a deliberate act or an act of gross negligence and recklessness, legislation provides for higher sentences. It is not in the employer's or anybody's interest that such would be the case in a place of work. On balance, the exercise carried out at an earlier stage of the Bill's preparation which came up with the two-year maximum sentence for each charge seems reasonable, particularly when compared with the provisions in other legislation.

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