Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will give Deputy Rabbitte the chance to withdraw the statement. I did not once mention the Judiciary. Whoever else did so, I did not. Deputy Rabbitte stated three times that I did. I stated that a judge has no discretion in imposing a life sentence for murder, and that legislation is absolutely tight. He can make comments that must be taken into account. The parole board makes recommendations and the Minister accepts the great majority of them. I remind Deputy Rabbitte, though I would rather not do so on a day when I wanted to express my sympathy for Donna Cleary, that when he had an opportunity at the Cabinet table, albeit brief, he cancelled the prison building programme, failed to put even one extra garda on the street and failed to properly resource the Garda Síochána. He supported the policy to allow 16% of prisoners onto the streets——

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