Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

Tá Sinn Féin i bhfabhar an Bhille seo. Tá slí níos fearr ann ná daoine a chur i bpriosún ar feadh téarma gearr mar seo.

Sinn Féin believes this Bill presents an important opportunity to eliminate inflated expenditure on unnecessary incarceration by ensuring that the courts will be obliged to consider the imposition of community service orders in certain circumstances. It is clear that merely locking increasing numbers of people up in prison cells does nothing to reduce crime. We must consider what works and ensure that justice policy is aimed at addressing the key causal factors of crime, namely, poverty, embedded disadvantage, entrenched inequality, lack of education and, in many cases, home life.

From a financial perspective, this Bill makes sense. The average cost of keeping an individual prisoner in custody for one year is just under €100,000 compared to an estimated cost of €4,295 for a community service order. These are stark figures. There is a high proportion of prisoners serving short prison sentences for offences that do not suggest they are a threat to society; clearly, therefore, there are questions to be asked about the cost effectiveness of the overuse of custodial sentences in the criminal justice system. Criminalising people more and more is unfair. Reducing expenditure on unnecessary incarceration would be more economically effective, as well as more socially effective.

When done properly, a community service order can prevent further reoffending by reintegrating the offender into the community through successful completion of positive and demanding unpaid work. The offender can give back to the community by doing something socially useful. We support the use of community service orders where appropriate, but they should not replace lower tariff sanctions and should remain as one of a diverse range of choices in alternative to custody. Judges should be required to consider their appropriateness against a custodial sentence. In the interest of fairness, guidelines must be introduced for the use of community service orders. An equivalency scale of hours of community service relative to time in custody, or fines imposed, should also be established. Education programmes could be part of this.

Sinn Féin strongly supports the introduction of community service orders as an alternate to custody for fine defaulters as we believe the use of custodial sentences for fine defaulters is inappropriate, ineffective, excessively resource intensive and should end. Fine levels do not take into account equality of impact. They have a negligible impact on high income offenders. I am reminded of a case that occurred a couple of years ago. A young girl from a working class area in Finglas spent two days in jail for non-payment of a fine imposed for not having a dog licence. That was absolutely scandalous. The judge in the case and the authorities lost the run of themselves.

We would like to take this opportunity to talk about the importance of the Government addressing the causes of crime in the first place. While the Bill is to be welcomed, it should really be a part of an overall strategy to get at the root causes of crime and address the glaring cracks in the system. In Dublin North West drug addiction is a huge issue. We welcomed the Government's commitment to support the principles of the national addiction strategy, particularly the commitment to expand rehabilitation services at local level, although we urge the Government to fund these services according to need rather than leaving them at the mercy of restricted budgets.

The Government needs to restore community confidence in the Garda. The community needs to feel it can report crimes. Incidents such as what happened in Rossport recently will not instill confidence in the Garda. What effect will this have on women who have reported sexual assaults, particularly in the Rossport area? How many women who have reported such crimes are now wondering if gardaí are joking about them? This matter must be addressed, as we do not want to see confidence in the Garda reduced.

There needs to be a connection between an effective police service and the community it is serving. Gardaí rarely live in the communities in which they work, particularly working class areas. A garda from a working class area who joins the force will usually move elsewhere. The same is true of judges who rarely come from working class areas. They tend to come from middle and upper class areas. A judge who comes from a working class area will usually move from it. This message must be reversed. Society is the poorer for the message that successful people cannot live in working class areas because they want to be with the big boys in Dublin 4 or some similar place. It is unfortunate that society has developed in this way, as it is not good.

We must support community projects. The Government must ensure the drugs task forces and community projects are properly funded. We have seen the massive effect of cutbacks in strong working class areas. There are several programmes for young people, many of whom are very vulnerable. The more we cut these programmes the more we are likely to have to deal with the young people concerned in the prison system. It is important, therefore, that the Government maintain investment in these projects, as any cutbacks will mean disaster for communities. We must follow up on the alcohol and drugs strategy and enshrine it in some way. The work done by the drugs task forces across the country has been huge. I hope, therefore, that the Government will examine this issue.

See this speech in context