Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that there is a need for a debate. Perhaps we could start it here by discussing the recently published report on the penal policy review, which took over two years to produce and which I put into the public arena last week. There are 43 recommendations in the review document and I would like further discussion on them. My position is that serious and serial offenders should be in prison. We do not row back for one moment from that but we do need to debate re-offending. International evidence suggests that if we focus on reducing re-offending, we will keep the country safer and there will be fewer people in prison. This has to be a serious focus if we are not to have people simply coming out of prison through a revolving door, which was the case in the past. There should be a structured approach to prisoners, including prisoners on temporary release, for example. Certainly, prison is to deal with serious and serial offenders.

Many of the people the Deputy speaks about from her constituency are in prison because of fines. The recent legislation will ensure that this will now be dealt with in a different way.

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