Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

In recent months, there have been calls every morning on the Order of Business for the Minister to come before the House. On each occasion I told the House that the Minister informed my office that he was very keen to come here and wanted an opportunity to address Senators about his policies. It is a matter of record that those calls have been made and, by coming to the House today, the Minister has answered them.

There is also the matter of the importance it has given the Seanad to provide the environment in which the Minister can give us three hours of his time on this issue. Ministers come and Ministers go with great speed – they remind me sometimes of a character in Alice in Wonderland– because they have all sorts of appointments to keep, which we all understand, but the Minister has come and stayed. That marks a difference, on which Members on all sides of the House have commented, given that the justice ministry is one of the busiest. The Minister has given us three hours of his time to speak in a forum where, regardless of political persuasions and the viewpoints expressed – we all admire diversity – he has aired a very imporant document – his speech.

The Minister set out openly the crime figures which are appalling and for which nobody is attributing blame to him. The percentage increases in various crimes, particularly sexual assaults, including rape, are major. Such crimes are fuelled by drink. I have no doubt that those who drink heavily and commit crimes such as this are fuelled by drink, although I am not excusing them, how could one? On the opposite side, those whom they assault are often drunk and, therefore, have less power to defend themselves. That is a terrifying situation.