Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would also like to sincerely thank Sinn Féin for rightly using its Private Members’ time for this motion. I want to offer my sincere sympathy to Ashling’s family, including her parents, siblings, boyfriend, her extended network of friends and the lovely young students who she was teaching and doing such great work with. They will miss their teacher and friend. I am glad that Deputy McEntee is the Minister for Justice at this time and I really mean that. What she has said in recent days has been helpful in difficult circumstances. The family has not had time to even think about what parliamentarians are saying but in time the way the Minister has dealt with this awful problem in recent days will be appreciated by a lot of people.

We all have a responsibility to try to do the right thing and the big question is what is the right thing? What can we do to ensure that no one will have to lose their life? There should be stronger deterrents. Our courts, Judiciary and prison set-up should not be places of comfort and small sentences. There should be deterrents in this country so that people would say you cannot commit a crime because the deterrent would be so strong. We have to all try to work together. No one in this House has the answers but we have to work collectively. That includes the political parties and the individual politicians. We must all use the brainpower we have to do the right thing.

This has upset people to their core. Every person should be entitled to go out for a walk and exercise in safety. Equally, people should be able to go to bed at night and not necessarily be locking doors and setting alarms. People should not have to be worried about where they park their cars either. These types of things might seem minimal when we are talking about the enormity of what has happened to this family but it is all part of what has happened in society. People behaving improperly seems to be accepted and that should not be the case.

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