Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Section 13 is the standard provision for the consent of the Minister for Finance regarding contracts. I tabled the amendment to tease out where these monitoring systems stand. I admit I am not a technician. Since my comments on GPS, I have had several e-mails from people who use it satisfactorily for jogging.

My concern is that this is part of a window-dressing package. The Minister claims these systems will be introduced but only when they work. They never may but it is useful to have a nice, robust-sounding package together, capturing some ideas put forward by among others, Deputy Jim O'Keeffe, to make the Minister look good running into the election. Maybe mine is a particularly cynical view. Last year on Committee Stage of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, the Minister declared his enthusiasm was waning for these same proposals.

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