Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

There would have to be a detection, a prosecution and a conviction and a District Court judge would have to say that it is not an appropriate case for the Probation Act. As for the point about getting drunk on one's own, I should tell Senator Norris about an instance where a senior counsel challenged the testamentary capacity of an elderly man in court. He put it to the witness in the case that the elderly man was incapable of making a will, but was making very little progress. He said to the witness, "I have to suggest to you that the testator was in the hands of soliloquising." The witness said, "To be honest with you, Sir, I do not understand that term." The senior counsel then said, "I have to suggest to you that you know very well he was in the habit of talking to himself when there was nobody else around." The witness replied, "Well, to be honest with you, Sir, I was never there when there was nobody else around."