Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I still say that including the phrase "classes of persons" is wrong because it brings into the Minister's consideration the type of crime that has been committed by the person in question. Why specify? Surely the type of rules the Minister of State has mentioned with regard to juvenile offenders can be taken into consideration under the other provisions in the Bill and do not need to be spelt out here. In arguing against the amendments proposed by me and other Senators, the Minister of State has resisted specifying too much in the legislation, yet now he seems to be making an exception and I wonder why as it is unnecessary. Maybe I exaggerated slightly the impact of the phrase but it does start to differentiate between types of offender and that is the wrong approach.