Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is not possible to indicate at this stage when the pharmacy Bill will be brought forward. On the matter raised by Deputy Kenny in respect of newspaper coverage, this issue relates to 272 prisoners out of a total prison population of 150,000 during a 16-year period. Deputies will be interested to know that the use of temporary release has decreased significantly from 20% when the Rainbow Coalition was in power to 5% under this Government.

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