Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I will be brief because I am conscious we have only approximately one hour and ten minutes left in which to discuss the Bill. I hope we reach the issue of periods of detention which we have not discussed at any level in the House. We did not reach it on Committee Stage.

My view on electronic tagging is well-rehearsed and we debated it previously. Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendment proposes the deletion of section 11 with which I would be more comfortable on a number of bases. By the Tánaiste's own admission, the technology does not exist to do it. As we know, two types of technologies are involved. Fixed point technology confines a person to his or her home and this works. Electronic monitoring, which allows one to know where a person is on a broad basis, is less reliable and extremely expensive.

I am concerned on a number of fronts and not only about the unreliability of the technology. If tagging becomes acceptable a significant decision must be made by a court to deny a person his or her liberty and bail and lock him or her up. If tagging becomes the norm it is an easier decision to make and, to put it at its mildest, it is a severe imposition on the notion of liberty. The basis of our judicial system is that one is innocent until proven guilty. Depriving someone of his or her liberty before he or she is proven guilty can only be done for the clear reason of the safety of the public. We all modified our views on this because of serial offences of people awaiting trial. To put it bluntly, in some instances the criminal justice system is slow and people wait many months or years for a court hearing. Sometimes people contrive to wait many months or years for a hearing by putting up barriers themselves.

For these reasons I would prefer if these proposals were put on hold. However, from what I understood the Tánaiste to have told us on Committee Stage, he wants a legislative basis for this but does not see it being implemented immediately. Perhaps he will confirm this now. It must first go through a procurement arrangement, obtaining the permission of the Minister for Finance. A scale of implementation will then be needed because one would not establish an entire apparatus to monitor one prisoner and a critical mass would be necessary. A series of logistical steps would follow. This indicates that while the Tánaiste proposes we legislate for it, we are a long way from implementing it.

See this speech in context