Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

It should focus on drug barons, criminal gangs etc. That is as the Tánaiste said. However, it has been misused for the purpose of obtaining revenue.

I do not have time to concentrate on a number of provisions in the Bill and probably will not have adequate time on Committee Stage to go into detail because the Tánaiste is rushing the Bill, as per normal. The removal of the right to silence for some people needs considerably more thought. Dean Lyons would not have been abused in the manner he was if he had used his right to silence. The issue of electronic tagging merits considerably more discussion. I debated some of these matters with the Tánaiste at length on the Committee Stage of last year's Criminal Justice Bill. The Tánaiste was perplexed and confused when we went into the technical details of how electronic tagging cannot and will not work, and would not be cost effective here. It represents a retrograde step in our criminal justice system.

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