Seanad debates

Thursday, 15 May 2003

Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill 2002: Second Stage.

 

I wish to express a view in which I believe and to which the Minister referred when he spoke about Tony Blair and ATM cash machines. When I examined the 1994 Act and then looked at the report of 2001, I saw that over 42,000 public order offences had been committed. I was astounded by that statistic but then began to think about traffic offences, parking offences in particular. If I park incorrectly, I will not have to go to court and clog up the time of the courts and the Garda Síochána. I will be told that I can go to court if I choose but, otherwise, will be expected to pay a fine within so many days or weeks. It is a long time since I have been a parking ticket – perhaps that is one of the advantages of being a Member of this House. As something like that does not require a constitutional amendment, why can we not do something similar in this case? The vast majority who misbehave and know they have done so – just as in the case of parking offences – will say, "Yes, I got drunk and shouldn't have misbehaved like that but I did." Now, however, we are saying such a person will have to go to court but we could impose a €300 fine for a first offence instead, as the Minister mentioned. Surely we would not need more legislation to do this but if so, it would be accepted immediately by this House.

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