Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

This is one area of the criminal justice system where there are capacity issues that need to be addressed fundamentally and rapidly. We invest huge resources in An Garda Síochána and the courts to ensure we get cases on for hearing in the criminal courts as quickly as possible. The whole system will not operate effectively if, at the end of those processes when a person has received a significant custodial sentence, there is an issue arising in respect of capacity for that person to serve their sentence.

As the Deputy will appreciate, it is also the case that we need to look at alternatives to imprisonment. There are a lot of people in prison. I have visited five of the prisons to date. There are a lot of people in prison who have serious health and addiction issues. There are also people in prison who could be doing community service. That is an area that I am going to change by amending the community services legislation to allow judges to now consider the imposition of community sanctions in respect of a person on whom a sentence of up to two years in prison is to be imposed. There are options other than fining or incarcerating somebody.

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