Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and I thank the Social Democrats for bringing it forward. It is timely, given what we saw on television in the past couple of days regarding the FAI, ladies soccer and all that goes with that. It is time to put things in place, educate people and ensure we have a proper society where everybody is treated equally, both men and women, and that no one gender has a right or power over another gender.

It is important that we start with the issue of education, to which reference was made by the previous speaker. In my view, the Department of Education is beginning to come around to the co-education ethos, where boys and girls are in the same school together. It happens in our national schools, where boys and girls sit together. When I went to national school, there was a boys' side and a girls' side and there was a big wall between us. We could not see over it and could not even look at a girl in national school. There were two separate schools in the one building in our small national school in Belclare. Thankfully, that changed and we now have a co-educational national school.

We also have what has evolved in Headford, Tuam, Mountbellew, Athenry, Loughrea and Gort, where we now have all co-educational schools. The latest change was last year, when St. Jarlath's College in Tuam, which historically was an all-boys college, went co-educational for the first time in its history. A number of girls entered first year in the school last year and it was history in the making. It should not have been but it was. I am delighted to say that many more girls are going to St Jarlath's this year. There is also Archbishop McHale College in the town. It, too, is co-educational, and has always been so, even when I was going to secondary school. It is important that all of the schools in Tuam, including the Presentation and Mercy convent schools, have now gone co-educational. We are creating this sense of co-education which is fundamental to people showing respect and living and working with one another. It is about not having a gender-based society where one gets preference over the other.

The other issue which raises its head, and has happened again in the past couple of months, is with our Judiciary system and how we deal with people who perpetrate sexual offence crimes against women or against young girls. We need to consider how that is treated and how the people who perpetrate these crimes, who are a danger to society, can reoffend, get bail and be out in society. In some cases, the Judiciary gives them the freedom to go out again. In the case of the perpetrator of the attack on Natasha O'Brien, the offender was given no jail sentence because it might affect his career in the Army. We must understand that when a person does something like this, there are consequences to that and those consequences have to be met. It has to be enacted in the strictest sense of the legislation.

We are giving the wrong signals to people. Last night, the Dáil discussed the killing of Shane O'Farrell in a hit-and-run incident, what the perpetrator of that incident did and the criminal record he had before he killed this lad. There is something wrong with our system if people who have committed so many crimes are continuously on bail. There does not seem to be joined-up thinking when it comes to An Garda, what the judge says should happen with the person, what An Garda knows about it, and the actions of all of the other organs of the State that are involved in the criminal justice system. There needs to be joined-up thinking and a better movement to ensure that what judges say is enacted. Where judges do not say something that should be enacted, they should be called to account.

We have a great deal of Garda vetting. As was said last night, if I go for a job as a bus driver, I have to be Garda vetted. If I go to another company to do it part time, I have to be Garda vetted again. There are so many Garda vetting procedures. Is it all just paperwork, rather than being effective in trying to sort things out? One Garda vetting on a person should be enough while the person is in a particular job but that vetting file should be updated if anything happens with the person in terms of a criminal record.

These are things we need to sort out. Attitude needs to change. It is important to remember that our bail system and bail laws leave a great deal to be desired. We see people going out on bail who should not be out on bail. That is important. Perhaps they are let out on bail because there is an acceptance that we do not have enough spaces to incarcerate people while they are awaiting trial. That, however, is a failure of the State and should not leave people exposed to further injuries and risk into the future.

The idea of free legal aid must be looked at. A person who repeatedly reoffends can revert to free legal aid. It may be a great principle to say that everybody is entitled to their day in court, to defend themselves and that everybody is innocent until proven guilty but it is important to look at what we are doing with free legal aid, who is benefiting from it and whether it is effective and working properly.

There is a great amount within the scope of this debate that we need to consider. Although the Government and this Dáil are in the jaws of an election, as somebody described it, it is important that we, as legislators, ensure that any citizens who go out for a walk at night time are protected and know they have the protection of the State, An Garda and the judicial system. That is fundamental to having a free society and we have work to do in every aspect to ensure we give security to everybody.

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