Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

To some extent, there is an element of truth in that. If, however, in imposing sentence in a case, a judge has regard to the previous convictions of the accused, he or she is having regard to other judges' findings and the sentences they imposed. We must take a commonsense approach and a judge must have a fairly complete picture of what has gone before.

I am glad there appears to be general agreement on this matter. I visited the Garda vetting unit in Thurles yesterday. I was shown two application forms relating to jobs that involve working with children which were submitted for vetting and on which the applicants had forgotten to include information on major sexual offences involving children. Persons applying for bail must be put under some pressure, therefore, to rack their brains and supply information relating to serious offences they committed in the past. It is important that a court, in the context of whether bail should be granted, should be presented with a good picture of an accused and his or her general character. I am happy with the consensus that has emerged.

Deputy Howlin asked me to outline the Schedule to the Bail Act. The Schedule is extremely lengthy and covers virtually everything that could be considered a serious offence, including treason, murder, rape——

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