Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Exactly. I want to look at that issue very carefully. I have been contemplating for a few weeks whether the point Deputy Howlin raised on Second Stage is correct and I want to look at it.

In regard to the judge's discretion, the Bill clearly provides that where it would be unjust to do so for specific and exceptional reasons it need not be done. As far as I am concerned, that is sufficient latitude but there can be no doubt it is extremely dispiriting for the Garda, which finds a person with a few hundred thousand euro worth of cocaine, to see that person walk out of court or to get a one or two-year sentence. Public opinion and public confidence in the judicial system is damaged by sentences of that order. That is the point I am making.

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