Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

I agree with the essence of the Bill. If our criminal justice system is meant to have anything to do with transforming and rehabilitating people, it is essential that once they have served their sentence, they be given the opportunity to participate fully in the world. When I stood up in my local council chamber, if I had a vested interest on any issue, I was meant to state it, so I might as well state my vested interest here. I have a criminal record in regard to three occasions of possession of cannabis and I also have a criminal record under the Litter Pollution Act 1997. However, it is not for myself that I want to see a change because, strangely, there is no bar on my being a Member of Dáil Éireann because of my criminal record, although there would be on my being a lollipop lady - or man, even.

The essence of the Bill is positive and it is essential that we do this. However, if the idea is to help people participate more in society and to get a job, the list of excluded employments is ridiculous. What job can a person do when almost every State job is excluded under the Bill? What is the danger of someone going on to become a traffic warden if at the age of 18 the person, rather stupidly, decided to knock on someone's door, then ran away and ended up with a criminal record under some public order Act? The list of employments needs to be changed because, otherwise, this part of the Bill is pointless and does not achieve anything. Many people have come to me with the complaint that it had not entered their head a criminal record would cause a problem if, for example, they wanted to go to Australia to work or that they would be disbarred from getting a decent job. This is in nobody's interest.

I remind some of the Members of the House, when they are deciding what should be included or excluded, that they are lucky not to have criminal records because members of the Garda Síochána did not have enough resources and the world is not perfect so they could not prosecute some of the Members who have admitted to the crime I have been tried for, namely, the possession and use of cannabis. The people who have admitted this in publications such as Hot Press should remember it when they vote on the Bill. If they were not quite so lucky, they too would no longer be allowed to work in any of these jobs. Whatever the law was attempting to do for them in the first place, I do not believe the intention was that their whole life would be ruined and they would never again be able to contribute to society. Given that, they must support the Bill because, otherwise, they will be hypocrites.

The essence of the Bill is good and it is essential we do this, although much of the detail needs to be changed. In addition to his point on the excluded employments, many good points were raised by Deputy Jonathan O'Brien as to the length of the sentence and the contradictory nature of the length of the community service period, which goes to 12 months. While much needs to be changed, I hope we can do that on Committee Stage.

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