Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I spoke in the Dáil previously about how we need to look at what is working and not just at what is not working, so I will apply that to the discussion on the Revised Estimates. One must be careful with lies, damned lies and statistics, but at the same time it is an interesting body of material to go through for someone who is not directly involved. I wish to refer to the first statistic where, to my mind, things are working. When I was in government I was ashamed that at the time the prison population rose, but according to the latest statistics since 2010, we have gone from an average prison population of approximately 4,500 to 3,795. The Minister's response to my parliamentary question today indicated that the information is provided online on a daily basis. That is great news. It is something we are doing better. We do not need to go down the American route of a large incarceration system. It does not work and it does not reform people.

The Estimates process must examine how we can do things differently, not just keep doing the same. We must examine whether we can use some of the money we must have saved in that regard to change the prison system further and to provide for education and training and get young people out of a life of crime. That is the first thing I propose. We must endeavour to keep the number coming down. We should not stop there but try to be one of the best. It is interesting to look at the statistics. It is interesting when looking at the statistics that our prison population per head is similar to what it is in the North, so we are not out of line. It is not too low. One of the first things that jumped out at me is the good news that our prison population is falling and we should use the resources to help that continue to happen.

The Tánaiste and I probably first met in Dublin City Council in 1997 when I joined the city council. In that year 472 people died on the roads. The figures for last year show there has been a reduction to 166. Again, that is an amazing achievement for the State and it is done by thousands of small political decisions to put in a ramp here, apply a speed limit there and make a change to drink-driving legislation. We must keep going and aim to get the number of fatalities under 100. We must ask what it would take to achieve that, and to continue the example of where politics has worked. I say that on behalf of all of us. We have changed the nature of the environment to save between 200 and 300 people a year. That is just the fatalities, let alone the injuries, and the number of lives we have improved through that process. We should invest further the money the State has saved in terms of the lives saved. It is not always a case of just money; change can also be achieved by legislative means. We should be brave and willing to go for it and get down to zero fatalities.

The third area on which I wish to focus is an interesting one because it defies what we ordinarily hear. The journalist Vincent Browne is correct when he says the media has a tendency to paint a picture of an increasingly unsafe and insecure society. However, unless there is some major reason for a statistical change in how the CSO records the figures, as I read the statistics in the Revised Estimates report, the number of reported offences has fallen by 8% from 2012 to 2014, from 201,000 to 185,000. Again, we should seek to keep the trend going. The Minister will argue in the Estimates process for an increase in the number of gardaí. Deputy Catherine Murphy might be correct that there are certain black spots where we need to reallocate resources, but we should not be afraid to change instead of just sticking to the way things are. Where I would like to see the extra gardaí is involved in a range of community services rather than just processing a criminal-oriented, prison-based, punitive, fine-based system - creating a genuinely safer environment by bringing gardaí into the heart of the community and giving them advanced training so that we continue those positive trends. It is important to recognise that, because if we do not recognise success then what is the incentive for making more of whatever created the success in the first place?

However, there are also things that we need to change. I will just pick three things at random out of the Minister's extensive Department in terms of how it interacts with our lives. First, in a response to a parliamentary question that I received today, it is stated that some 417 inmates are in prison on drug-related offences. I noted with interest a comment from the Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, the former Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, whom I hold in very high regard. Anybody who has been on the committee seems to think he did an excellent job in that role. He came out with a very strong statement - stronger than what I had heard previously in Government circles - that we need to move towards a decriminalisation process of the drugs system as a recognition that it is not working. It does not save us money. It costs us money and it does not reduce the amount of drugs being taken, so instead of imprisonment and the criminalisation process we should invest money in education and health supports. We must do things differently this time. We have the opportunity to be flexible and change.

I note the Minister has responsibility for the Data Protection Commissioner, which is a critical office in the future development of the economy. We have all the big digital industries here and we have only 50 people working with Helen Dixon, an excellent Data Protection Commissioner, following on from an excellent predecessor. In my experience of dealing with the Department, I do not think it was coming at it with the right attitude. It is coming with a very strong security protection focus in terms of getting as much data as we can and storing as much data as we can. I do not think the Department's attitude is in tune with where the digital world is going and where we need to place ourselves as a society and country. If the Minister is reallocating resources within the budget process, there is a case for further investment in the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and in making Ireland the best country in the world for citizen-centred data management and for building up trust in terms of how we share and use data, not based around excess Government control, which I sometimes feel the Department is slightly inclined towards, or corporate control, which the large corporations are inclined towards, in favour of a citizen-controlled system.

Finally, and where, to my mind, we must hang our heads somewhat in shame, I wish to speak about the nature of the asylum process, which, due to its extended period, is, in effect, incarceration. We do not allow people to cook for themselves or work, which has led to the creation of a system that is not serving us well and is not serving the approximately 4,000 asylum seekers in the system. It is expensive. The cost is approximately €140 million. If one looks at the accommodation and administration costs, it amounts to almost €33,000 per annum for each asylum seeker. The system is not working any which way and we must change it.

The other day on Leaders' Questions I argued that the choices the Minister must make should be discussed in July with the committee, because it is such an interesting and broad Department, in order to strengthen her hand in the budgetary process. I regret that I will not be able to be a member of the committee to take part in the discussions, because it seems to me that the Minister has one of the most interesting opportunities for change within the political system.

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