Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this legislation. I accept that the Bill is before the House on constitutional grounds. Every so often we must review the efficacy of legislation and the need for it. There was a need for legislation in this area to sharply bring home to those involved in criminality that they could not get away with it indefinitely. An attempt was being made at the time to shock the criminal world into believing that there would be serious consequences for their actions and that they would pay. Unfortunately, as Deputy Catherine Murphy outlined, the criminal world seized the opportunity to use mules to do their dirty work, to do the carrying and delivery. The mules were inevitably caught and given maximum sentences while the real carriers took a different, well charted route and got clean away.

That was an instance of a serious problem which had to be dealt with. One way of dealing with it is to change the law in respect of it. However, there is also a danger of losing all the ways and means of dealing with crime in its modern shape and form. We need to recognise that as time goes by, the criminal world is modernising its activities, changing the rules insofar as it is concerned and finding new ways and means of circumnavigating the system with a view to making crime pay.

The question of bail and the number of crimes committed by people while on bail was very much an issue in the past. It still remains so, albeit not to the same extent. Not only were people on bail for committing more than one crime, they were subsequently bailed again allowing them to commit more crime. It was really laughable to see what happened. The Garda was bringing people in, prosecuting them and bringing them to court, but before sentencing they were let out on bail during which they made good value of that time to reoffend. As a result, in some cases up to 20 or 30 offences took place while the person accused in the first instance was on bail. That was unacceptable and could not go on. The longer that kind of thing went on, the worse the situation got.

Some of us carried on a campaign to highlight that particular issue and, thankfully, it was addressed. It may need to be addressed further and great caution needs to be taken to ensure there is ongoing monitoring of the efficacy of the legislation in dealing with that issue. There should be no situation whereby somebody can obtain bail in respect of a multiplicity of crimes and at the same time be free. That cannot add up. It brings the law into disrepute. It is certainly no comfort to the forces of law and order if this kind of thing is allowed to happen and people appear to get away with it.

We should also recognise the important role of crime prevention. We need to look at that to a greater extent. One or two things come to mind very quickly. One is bad-quality housing and the concentration of huge numbers of people in what are, effectively, ghettoes. We do not have many in the country but we have a few and they are bad environments. We cannot expect people to behave in a normal way if they live in abnormal conditions and are treated accordingly. We need to look at our social and housing laws to try to ensure that people have a reasonable quality of life in the houses in which they live. I am conscious of the fact that we have a housing crisis. I have spoken about it, like everybody else, many times in this House. We have not resolved it yet; various factors have affected that. The fact of the matter is that we will need to resolve that particular issue if we are going to give people an even chance.

I raised quite a number of Dáil questions on the issue of rehabilitation over the years. I was not always happy about the degree to which the issues were resolved. First-time offenders should get the first opportunity at re-education within the prison system with a view to education and training. Every possible means should be found to enable them to have pride in what they could do in a crime-free environment and to be able to contribute to their well-being, that of their families and, as a result, that of society. Much more needs to be done. I have also found out over the years that within the prison system there are some people who are habitual, long-term offenders who avail of all the services available within the Prison Service with no intention of ever changing their habits. They are doing it to have a better quality of life while they are in prison. We need to look at those services, see how effective they are and how we proceed.

My final point goes back to minimum sentencing and the extent to which the courts have discretion, rightly so, in determining the sentences they hand down. It should not automatically follow that the easiest possible sentence is administered in certain areas. For instance, we have seen many situations in the past where somebody who did not pay his or her television licence did prison time, whereas somebody who struck an elderly person over the head with a blunt instrument, leaving him or her in hospital, sometimes got the Probation Act. These kinds of things should not happen. In order to ensure that the law is respected, we must have the law in such a way that it protects the vulnerable in society and society as a whole. At the same time, the law must be constitutionally sound. Those are just a few of the things I wanted to say. I could say much more but I would need much more time.

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