Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Neither an impact assessment nor explanatory memorandum are provided with the Bill. In addition, no costings or financial implications have been supplied in respect of it.

Deputy Martin Ferris referred earlier to former prison inmates and IRA prisoners. I spent ten years working in the criminal justice system. I worked on Spike Island, in Cork prison and in probation, pre-release and post-release programmes. All of the latter were very effective because there were clear performance indicators in respect of them. The programmes to which I refer involved dealing with recidivism, rehabilitating people and reforming the system. What Sinn Féin seems to be proposing is that those prisoners who have done their best to make up for their transgressions and who are trying to get on with their lives should be left out of the loop. The legislation before the House constitutes another aspect of Sinn Féin's subjectivity when it comes to dealing with prisoners.

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